The human created calendar has turned and now we name this 2014. The darkest of winter, in the northern hemisphere, has past, the solstice of earth-solar relations has taken us into another stage. We proceed and turn in the cycle we have marked for millennia. Individuals  perhaps make good intentioned resolutions, we end one year reviewing, remembering and begin anew, hoping, discovering,fearing, striving...? Can humanity find ways to coexist on this globe without destroying one another? Without destroying the globe and ecosystem itself? May we grow to value one another, the waters, the air, the forests, the varied species? Will individuals fold in upon themselves in self-centered protectionism  or open and grow in potential to benefit the greater good?


My New Year's wish brings to mind a favorite quote -

 “And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom” - Anaïs Nin          

may we all seek and dare to blossom

 “The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be
released and channeled toward some great good.'' - Brian Tracy

“I'm no more a wonder than anyone. And that's what makes the world magical. Every baby's a seed of wonder - that gets watered or it doesn't.”- Dean Koontz

 “Every moment has infinite potential. Every new moment contains for you possibilities that you can't possibly imagine. Every day is a blank page that you could fill with the most beautiful drawings.” - John C. Parker

Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!
Anne Frank
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/potential.html#4YCcdjXWBvFSB1AU.99

 “It is a denial of the divinity within us to doubt our potential and our possibilities.” - James E. Faust

 “Potential is not an endpoint but a capacity to grow and learn.” - Eileen Kennedy-Moore

 “All that you have been is but a small part, a very mere bit of the potential of your life.” - Jennifer DeLucy

 “As long as there is life, there is a potential; and as long as there is a potential, there will be a success! You will sprout again when cut down! You will rise again even when you fall!” - Israelmore Avivor

“Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don't know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”- Anne Frank

“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”- Wilma Rudolph

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.”-  Ashley Smith

Some refer to the ''dead'' of winter as if the cold has stopped life, removed the life-force from within nature. Some view the frozen midwestern farmfield as devoid of life in mid winter

.Spring brings the intense, vividness of (aptly named) spring green sprouts of new life emerging from  the black earth. and new life vigorously pushes forth into the world



 

 Summer glows verdant with growth and hot pulsing life..

 Autumn crescendos with the glory of ripened flora and the harvest warms hearth and heart.

 In winter the chilled air, the blanket of snow, the sparkling crystals of ice may harden the ground and stop apparent growth but it does not mean that life is gone. All life needs life, even that from which life springs needs it's restorative rest. The soil is  recouping, regenerating itself and the nutrients needed for next season's growth.The stubble of last years crops still provides feed for grazing and it also protects and holds the soil to in place for future use. In each and every season the agricultural places are at the heart of the land and people.Found the farm buildings, sometimes sheltering animals, sometimes storing food, sometimes just watching over the land, year after year, season after season to be absolutely beautiful in a homey way and and definitive statements of ongoing life upon the agri-lands as meandered through the countryside.

In the bleak midwinter frosty winds made moan
earth stood hard as iron 
water like a stone
snow had fallen snow on snow
snow on snow (Christina Rosetti)

Solstice has flipped the balance and the days grow longer and we celebrate. In ancient times throughout a great number of cultures from Europe through Asia and Africa cultures celebrated eternal life and rebirth and hope with the  boughs and garlands of ''evergreen'' trees. Renaissance Europe adopted the green of fir or evergreen trees to  add to Christian  Christmas celebrations. 

 There are references that Martin Luther, Protestant reformer, was the first to add lights to the Christmas tree

Green is my favorite color, it is  new life, it is the ground cover, it is the  color of the leaves on trees that help oxygenate the atmosphere, it is a color of hope and promise

As the calendar year ends and a new year is just ahead, as we pause and gather to celebrate
                                  holidays ~ holy days
 to all I wish the light of love and the green of hope and promise

          Merry Christmas ~ God Jul ~ Feliz Navidad

The Winter Solstice 2013 has come and gone and a major snow storm is about to hit the central states of the United States
                                                                   SNOW on OBJECTS
There are many quotes about water being so soft, so free form yet so strong and powerful, powerful enough in persistence to carve a grand canyon and to shape the sides of continents.
Snow is  beautiful crystallized water. Soft, intricate, delicate beautiful flakes that can softly blanket  the earth...and create havoc, delay, destruction and even death. Humans are tiny little beings upon this globe and the forces of nature can still set our best laid plans asunder. Nature and her winds, water droplets and snow flakes all need to be respected in both their beauty and their potential power