Yesterday the first real snowfall blanketed my outside view in sparkling white. Everything beneath the water-laden sky transformed into pure crystalline snowflake-covered other-worldly scenes. That seasonal transformation resurrected my child of wonder within.

The normally stalwart juniper tree outside the bedroom window bent in concession to nature’s overnight change—weighted down by clumps of pearlized snow. My first thought was, “I’ve got to get that photo!”

The normally stalwart juniper tree outside the bedroom window bent in concession to nature’s overnight change—weighted down by clumps of pearlized snow. 

I grabbed my thickest fleece-lined purple sweats and pulled them over my pink pajama bottoms. An orange Surfrider hoodie weaponized me against the frigid temps I was about to confront. Snow boots purchased sometime in the 1990s covered my feet. Oly was charged and ready to capture a nothing but white landscape.

The 20-something temperature didn’t phase me as I observed this glittering world through the eyes of Oly. “How can I make this not just another snow photo?” “How should I set Oly for all this whiteness?” (I really had no idea of the right camera settings for the nothing but white in the early morning.)

If I had felt a bit more confident on my feet and if I didn’t want to pierce the perfect snow fall on the ground with my boots, I might have explored my options a bit more. But the reality check is I’ve lost muscle tone through my days of rest and healing. That combined with “zoom-zoom Zelda,” the knee that took the brunt of my restless youth, especially when skiing the trails of groomed and not so groomed mountain snow (maybe a little bit too fast for my own good), yesterday’s photo op kept me close to the house. Thank goodness for zooming lenses.

Silence and wonder filled the world around me. It seemed so perfect — so climate change-free, and all is well with the world. This pushed me to try to capture this short moment in time.

Silence and wonder filled the world around me. It seemed so perfect — so climate change-free, and all is well with the world. This pushed me to try to capture this short moment in time. I knew the Southwestern sun would soon return and begin dismantling this temporary landscape. I knew that when I went back inside and the morning broadcast news framing human greed and empty hearts, that it would further melt away this enchanting moment from me.

So Oly and I continued our partnership in capturing nature at her best. Some photos pleased me. Some went immediately into the delete pile. The news broadcaster reported on the nightmare bush fires burning in Australia and how koalas are being lost to the flames — but how one woman heard a scorched koala’s cry and rushed into the fire to save it.

Unprecedented fires, floods and environmental crises are documented and reported daily. Yet, a legion of humans deny the facts. Men in power laugh in the face of open and unscarred land and project their monetary growth by the land and sea as opposed to the growth of our souls and hearts from opened views, silence and nature singing her interconnected song.

Yesterday’s resurrection of my inner childhood wonder was medicine to the unseen within me. And it reminded me of how temporary our material life truly is. Fortunately, Oly captured the temporary beauty when everything before me turned sparkling white.

Yesterday’s resurrection of my inner childhood wonder was medicine to the unseen within me. And it reminded me of how temporary our material life truly is.