So, yes, it is still winter. I know some of you are dreaming of Spring. I know flowers and gardens and dreams of kayaking down rivers may be on your mind. I've compiled a list of things to hopefully engage your senses and help you get through the next month or two, depending on where you live.
To see, the haunting beauty of winter: https://artandhome.net/beautiful-winter-scenes/
To touch, or feel clarity: https://jennifercwilliamswriting.com/2020/12/14/clarity-of-winter/
To taste, that hot chocolate that stole the scene and everyone commented on when I was sharing a book recommendation:
My Mom's Homemade Hot Chocolate
3/4 Cup Cocoa powder
3/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Tsp. salt
1 can evaporated milk
1/2 can filled with milk or half and half or cream (depending on how thick you like it.)
Add dry ingredients to a pot and mix. Turn heat on low and add a few splashes of milk and stir until it makes a chocolate syrup consistency. slowly add more milk and/ or cream, stir or whisk until smooth and hot. Now you can add espresso or chocolate chips or whipped cream. Enjoy.
Listen:
I need the opened window of centred attention.
I need the inrush of cold air quiet even in spurts of a minute.
I need companions of imagination and prayer to take me by the hands and lead me to my centre.
I need tangible ways of reconnection that replace and combat the busyness in my mind and it’s temptation to screens.
I need bite-size gifts of beauty that fit my brief moments alone and I need to keep them in all the places I sit to rest, to nurse, to work.
How, then, may I claim it? I’ve wrestled out several ‘rules’ for myself to follow, a scaffolding on which to build my new patterns:
I must savour silence.... https://sarahclarkson.com/thoroughly-alive/2020/2/17/how-to-restore-a-weary-and-distracted-mind
Scents of childhood in the winter: For me, the scents I remember are of electric baseboard heaters burning dust and the sizzle of steam when we would put our frozen mittens on top of it. Also the unlovely scent of kerosene, because our house was hard to heat. I would sit in front of it at night any time I couldn't sleep. Soaking in the warmth and staring into that globe of fire.
It's interesting that even a scent that wasn't great still reminds me of being young, of a home with parents and sisters and brothers. It wasn't perfect. Yet now it seems like it was. The scent of cold, all clean and pure like some sort of oxygen on steroids that clears away any other smell.
Sledding down hills and off small built up walls...only to come inside to the scent of warmth.
What do you remember? Which of the five sense is the strongest for you? Our human senses are a gift from God. I think He uses the senses to reach us, to concretely form moments and ideas within us.
We should keep our senses honed in and not deaden them. I hope you take what remains of winter and breathe in the cold, see the beauty around you, hear the Spirit's gentle words, experience life as the truly Beloved of God.
"For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.” 2 Corinthians 2:15
With Love,
Jennifer
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