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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}P1170029.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 188px; float: right; " />Upon asking my students to identify what kind of trees keep their leaves during the winter, one student enthusiastically exclaimed, &quot;A live one!&quot; It wasn&#39;t quite the answer I was looking for, considering most live trees are without leaves in the winter, but it reminded me of the common misconception that our forests are filled with dead trees and silence during the dormant winter months.</p>
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	Contrary to these misconceptions, I have discovered that our wintry world is full of life! Clearly the leaves have been shed and growth is limited in this frigid season, yet winter allows us to enjoy the utter simplicity of life that remains.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}P1170067.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 333px; float: left; " />To the uninformed eye, a blanket of clouds, rising barometric pressure, tracks in the snow, a vial of lake-water, and holes in a dead tree may be meaningless and dull, but to me (and hopefully to a bunch of rowdy Michigan kids), it means that we likely have fresh snow and some warm(er) weather, causing lots of critters to emerge and leave their intersecting paths behind (which we can investigate). The rising pressure indicates the coming of lovely sunshine and puffy cumulus clouds, the vial full of micro invertebrates will fascinate students within minutes and hold their attention for hours, and I am excited to explain the adaptations allowing woodpeckers to locate and devour their prey. Remember, you don&#39;t need to be a naturalist to see and explore. In his poem <em>Quatrains</em>, Rumi reminds us, &quot;The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you...&quot;</p>
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	As Parker Palmer writes in <u>Let Your Life Speak</u>, &quot;Winter clears the landscape, however brutally, giving us a chance to see ourselves and each other more clearly, to see the very ground of our being.&quot;</p>
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	The changing of seasons gives us the opportunity to gain new perspectives on the life we thought we knew in a previous season. In the winter, we begin to recognize trees not by their leaves, but by their bark and buds, their grand silhouettes. In place of the plethora of animal sightings in warmer seasons, we are left to do a bit more investigation concerning our forest companions, often examining evidence and making inferences instead of seeing them firsthand.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}521489_4495627076545_372538166_n.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 333px; float: right; " /></p>
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	Perhaps we have a lesson to learn from this harsh yet beautiful landscape. Just as the critters must adjust to the cold, the snow, and the food shortages blown in by these chilling winds, we must also adapt to the challenging seasons of life that are tossed in our path. It could be a job transition, the death of a close friend, an illness,&nbsp;or the end of a relationship. These are trying times in life, often viewed negatively as dark times and challenges we must overcome. Thankfully though, in the midst of these brutal landscapes, we leave behind the excessive clutter of our lives (like trees&#39; leaves). We set aside our possessions and once important tasks, and are more easily able to see the roots beneath us- the experiences that formed us and our sources of sustenance in life.</p>
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	<img alt="" src="{filedir_5}538281_4495628996593_1782698717_n(1).jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 188px; float: left; " />I am eternally grateful to this winter landscape and the blessings of simplicity I&#39;ve experienced at Au Sable. In the past month, I have been blessed by attentive and curious students, lively creatures scampering (or flittering) around on cold days, a few quality books, the discovery of Neat-ure walk on Youtube, kindness and new&nbsp;relationships, and a closer walk with God. Annie Dillard challenged me in her book <u>Pilgrim at Tinker Creek</u>, and I urge you also, to &quot;turn and unlock - more than a maple &ndash; a universe&hellip;Spend the afternoon. You can&#39;t take it with you.&quot; Explore the life outside your home and once you&#39;ve done that, take a look at your own life, at &quot;the very ground of [y]our being,&quot; and be thankful for the gifts in your life that are easily overshadowed, underestimated and overlooked.</p>
