Winter jewels

I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul will make its boast in the LORD;
the humble will hear it and rejoice.

O magnify the LORD with me,
and let us exalt His name together.
Psalm 34

Did you ever stand in a Cavern's Mouth -
Widths out of the Sun --
Loneliness looks so.
Emily Dickinson

The snow surrounds the house like a million glittering stars. The weeds bejeweled. It is a little girl's wonderland...an entire earth of sparkles. Rosy walks outside and breaths in deep, filling her little soul with the beauty of it. I watched her walk through the side yard yesterday, one step...bend, scoop, stare, smile. Repeat. The panes of the kitchen window seemed suddenly stifling and thick, too great a separation between her world and mine. In these quiet moments, watching life unfold like a fairytale before me, I feel my heart expand, and then suddenly contract. Like squeezing back tears, or stamping out pain so you can ignore it a little longer. The very beauty of my life is what makes it bittersweet - brings out the longing to be here for so much longer. I wish I could set a giant glass dome over moments like these, freeze them like the plaster figures in snowglobes, forever atwirl in a flurry of snow.