One Hour in the Snow

It’s the first day of my Spring Break. J & I woke up and turned on the television to see the school closings ticker at the bottom of the screen and footage of downtown St. Louis covered in snow ... again!

It’s going to sound strange but I get a little unnerved when I have a block of free time. Spring Break! So much to do, so little ...  All the conflicting roles within me start yelling for attention. The Marvelous Mummy says, “Spend time with Sophia or else you’re not a good mother!” The Prissy Perfectionist says, “Get the basement organized, you’re not a good home-maker!” The Good Student says, “You can’t play, we have homework to do.” The Writer says, “Why do you always ignore me? Write our novel!” The Diva says “You don’t look so good these days. You need a facial!” and “Let’s go clothes shopping!”  (Ms. Diva’s a force to be reckoned with).

The thing I notice is that these voices are all pretty critical. They all need to start talking nicely to me! I started panicking on Sunday evening (yesterday) because I wasn’t sure I could please them all. So this morning I wrote for an hour. Then on a whim I grabbed my camera to take some photos of the snow. I’m not a photographer by any means but it was fun. I ended up taking a walk in the snow to our local park. Just my camera and I.

Crazy woman in the snow ...

It felt like one of Julia Cameron artist’s dates. I had to quiet some voices to keep going, “You look like a crazy woman taking photos in the street!” and “You’re going to catch your death of cold” (That’s my mum talking). It was true that taking photos in the snow is odd because everything starts looking monochromatic. Water did start seeping in my boots at a certain point but it didn’t feel too bad.
I took pictures of the little deer statues in one of the houses down the street and the frog in the park. Such artistry :)

A Study of Vlasis Park, St. Louis in Winter :P

I felt happy because by the time I was on the way home, all the voices had stopped.

Happy Froggy

It got quiet for a while. Walking back home along my street it got loud again. The air was filled with the sound of starlings. All the girls: Mummy, Prissy, Student, Diva and I looked up into the trees at the same time.

New life ...

“My my, do you hear that!” We all stood there in wordless unison, breathing the wonder of nature in and out at the same time.