Winter Carving

Winter Carving

Forests are usually quiet places. Quiet and serene. Tall, tall old pines reaching to the sky. Woodpeckers rapping and digging deep for grubs. Echoes dying down only to hear the chirp of tiny song birds in the sunlit days. Deep hoots of owls in the night. There was a glen in this old forest that was far from quiet.

Music and laughter drifted through the grand tall trees. A crescent moon carved it’s place in the night sky and shone down on the frozen lake. Skaters scraped the ice clear of snow, strung lights along the shore and called out to each other. Cousins built a snowman and a snow-woman under the twinkling lights.

“Hey Jane! Is the hot chocolate ready yet? Your grandparents are coming down from the cabin soon.” 

“Come on, Tommy you know everything’s ready. Quit worrying.”

Jane and her cousin, Tommy had been focussed on their plans for a skating party for their grandparents for weeks. Professional skaters from thirty years ago, their grandparents were celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary soon. They were going on a long cruise making it impossible for the family to celebrate the couple that had built not just careers, but families. This little lake was where they first skated together. So many bodies of water no longer froze over with warming of the planet, but this little lake had escaped the changing temperatures. Just up a little rise, a log cabin stood where they also had spent summers and some winter holidays. The family was all gathered there with warm lights, good food and a roaring fire.

“Here we are kids!”

“Grandpa, get your skates on!”

“Oh my darlings! Look at what you’ve done! Jim! Jim! Did you bring my skates?”

“Of course, Estelle. Let’s dance.”

Music soared up into the night sky. Their grandparents graceful cut and scrape of ice blades in the cold winter air twirled into the grandeur.

“Love grows more tremendously full, swift, 

and poignant, as the years multiply.

~ Zane Grey

Author's note: Edited February 17, 2024