Happy Renew Year

Most of us approach a New Year with a feeling of optimism… like we’re starting with a clean slate. On the first day of this New Year, Julie and I drove down to Osceola Landing on the St. Croix River. Here, the landscape offered a visual reminder of the renewal that takes place every year at this time.

The fresh coat of snow sets a mood that is even more pristine than usual. The powder has a muffling effect, rendering the valley almost perfectly quiet, except for the faint sound of current moving beneath the ice. The jagged rocks on the face of a near-vertical ridge defy snow cover, and remind you of the landscape that sleeps under the flakes, waiting for spring, when it will awaken for another season of color.

We had hoped to recover a barrel that had evaded our grasp last fall… but turned back for reasons I’ll explain in another post. Still, the day was certainly not a lost cause. On the contrary, it served as another reminder of why the waterways deserve our protection, even as they sleep.

I looked back on the imprints left by my showshoes along the snow-covered shoreline; they were the only evidence that anyone or any thing had been here. And while I've walked this path before, the fresh snow, like a new year, left me feeling as if I was exploring it for the first time.

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© 2009 Mike D. Anderson, Crystal, MN.