Facebook contacts are better than no social contacts at all, and it’s wonderful to be connected with old friends in far-flung places. I love the ability to be in conversation with an old friend in Nova Scotia and one in Seattle and another in Detroit, all at once. The value is undeniable. I don’t deny it. And yet, how much more thrilled I would be to have my friends in the same room with me! Or — outdoors!
Cold weather all over the country did not frighten one friend away from our plan to take a morning walk in the snow on Wednesday. Since I lack her experience with snowshoes, and also because I kept stopping to pull my camera out of its sheltered spot under my jacket, I lagged behind much of the way.
When she reached the spot requiring a big step up, however, my friend waited for me to sure I could negotiate the rise.
Below, chairs overlooking a summer pond, so inviting on a July evening, look out now on ice from under thick blankets of snow...
...while farther down the snow-buried path, wind-driven snow plastered on trunks of trees also makes summer a memory difficult to retrieve.
But doesn’t my friend look cute in her winter cap, her colorful clothing enlivening the almost monochromatic landscape? It’s good to be outdoors with a friend!
Returning from our walk, I looked back to see the path we had made through previously unbroken white landscape, a path my friend assured me would be drifted over again by the next day. Yes, I’m sure it will be. Our driveway is plowed every day and drifted closed again and again as the wind moves snow through the air like the grains of ever-shifting sand dunes. The days are cold, and it’s important to have warm clothing and the warmth of friends in a Michigan winter.
