Stories Are Words With A Soul

It has been tremendously bone-chilling and frigid here all week in Minnesota.  So today, I truly needed to get out of the house for a change of scenery and fresh air.   I piled on layers of warm clothing, you know that point of where one can barely move, and went for a long hike.  There's a trail I take past this tree, which I've nick-named the "Scream".  (Like the famous Norwegian painting, "The Scream" by Edvard Munch.)  There is a comparison here!   Plus, the screaming tree represents how I've been feeling about the weather lately!

As I trudged,  wind picked up, (-13 wind chill), and snowflakes fell from the sky.  Flakes accumulated on my lashes and my mind started to wander on words from an excellent book I recently finished by  Anthony Doerr.   He talks about living in Rome and wanting to be in the Pantheon with the first snowflakes falling through an open hole in the domed roof (the oculus).  When I toured the Pantheon years ago I saw blue sky through the oculus  and watched sunlight illuminate the floor around me and can only imagine how gorgeous and magical snowflakes would be!!!

I highly recommend Doerr's wonderfully written book: "Four Seasons In Rome".  It will warm you and take you somewhere lovely.  It is a story with a SOUL.