Between Living & Dreaming

Between living and dreaming there is a space that is endless. A place where things grow new names and new ways of being, of possibilities not yet thought of but lived. I’ve been through a lot of weather and in my many years of living here’s what I’ve seen, heard, and imagined.

Are you a chionophile? Snow and cold weather lovers fall under this phile. Chion is from the Greek word khiōn, which means snow.

I remember cotton candy snow. Snow that could be scooped up and put in a bowl for eating.

And at the dentist office a couple weeks ago I heard about powdered sugar snow - a snow so fine, you could blow it off your sidewalk with your breath.

And there’s slatted snow – frozen, elongated pellets of snow-rain that sting the face.

Slush snow – snow that is somewhere between ice and rain.

Sideways snow – high winds and snow that come at you in such a way you have to hold your body sideways while walking.

Crunch snow – you know the sound that travels like telephone wire cables across the land.

Boots, vehicle tires, even paws stepping on it echo across the frozen white.

Danger snow – mounded high, tunnels carved into the half-mile-like tall white stuff that becomes unstable due to heavy accumulations.

Clingon snow – also called dendrites where big snowflakes cling together to form humungous flakes.

Rainbow snow – being in a blizzard and the sun comes out.

Snow art – carved, sculpted, drawn, painted – snow made into works of art by all ages to be enjoyed by the viewer and its creator.

Functional snow – when one used snow for survival or efficiency. Think igloos, packing snow against a house for insulation. And did you know snow absorbs 60% of sound?

Chill snow – when the quiet descends upon you while participating in, being in, or watching snow. It can make life stop for a moment, can feel nostalgic, or remind us that the world is full of awesomeness.

Music by Ygarr Ygarrist: Renaissance Wave