It is an occupation."
Sinclair Lewis
Sinclair Lewis does not have to be from Boston to appreciate winter's challenge. It is an occupation because it requires so much from us--it literally occupies our time! You cannot even leave the house without wrapping up, forget the driving without the shoveling, and careful steps on ice.
And there is something else it does--changes our vision! The same landscape takes on new shapes--in fact the world itself changes. Trees that fill with leaves now have life and limb shaped with snow. A new vision appears for us of the same world we see in other seasons. It is as if the soul so invisible within us suddenly appeared before out eyes. The single flake seen above fills out the fullness of the tree seen below. Maybe the occupation of winter means more than a different activity but a new vision of what we only see one way, now more visible with new shapes. And what is Lent but the glimpse of the soul we often take for granted--now the effort made to actually look at it and see it for the eternal gift it is.
In the midst of winter....
I discovered in me an invincible summer.
Albert Camus
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