It is strange that the end of one year and the beginning of the next will spur on so many emotions... so many thoughts. Perhaps it is simply that humans must measure everything with a start and finish that we feel the need to reflect on what was, before we can consider what will be.

That being said, the things I chose to remember are tiny little pinpoints in what has become my life. They didn't even occur in the past year... past decade for that matter. What my mind brought to the surface today were the long winter days spent as a freckle faced girl, raised in the middle of a vast apple orchard.

It wasn't unusual for the snow to build up several feet deep, so it made my treks through the front yard more like sojourns through a vast tundra. How many snowmen came to life by my hand? How many snowwomen for that matter, with buxom blobs of snow patted to their chests to make the distinction. I had to smile as I watched the storm today, blanketing everything in sparkling white. These were the days that were cherished.

One memory in particular was of the habit I had of wanting to play in the snow at night, especially when the big snowflakes were falling down out of the sky. I would push my way through to the furthest corner of the yard, where the houselights would barely break through the dark. It was there that I would spread my arms wide open and fall back - just like the game of "Trust" I used to play with my friends, only this time...it was only the cushion of snow that would catch my fall.

I loved the feel of it packing in around me. Of course, Mom always made certain I was bundled up enough to survive an Alaskan blizzard, so there was no cold. So I would lay there, staring up into the darkness....watching snowflakes come down from high above. The lights from the kitchen were just enough to illuminate the snowfall as it came down over the yard, making it almost impossible to look away. Hypnotic... if I laid there long enough, I lost awareness of everything else around me, and could trick my senses into actually feeling as if I were in a blissful freefall through space. The snowflakes were stars drifting past, and I was somewhere loose in the universe - in my own quiet world.

No thoughts of wars and earthquakes....death and destruction. It was an innocent selfishness, this winter daydream. My world was a small bubble, then. Trust was a rich commodity... as was the wish to travel the world, as freely as I laid in the snow traveling the universe. To learn and appreciate every facet of it.

Sometimes it pays to revisit that place, before looking ahead to what the year might bring. To close my eyes and imagine the snow falling all around, and to know that the cocoa will be waiting for me when I finally climb the stairs and disappear into the house, leaving the snowmen outside to face whatever ills the night might hold.