My Life Symbol

As the snow and ice storm of the decades sweeps across the nation my thought reaches out to the coming Spring.
As the economic and moral storm of the decades sweeps across the nation my thought reaches out to the coming promise of better-lived days. We all could use more greenery in our lives, eh? - lol
I took the picture shown on the lower right (not of me, silly! lol). I wish it could be bigger, because I use it as my desktop picture and it is the best one I've ever taken. The little postage stamp-size here doesn't give it justice. But look at the colors - all early Springtime. The promise of things to come.
The symbol of my life is the edelweiss. Its beginnings, before it even appears, is a struggle to break through the ice in its urgency to emerge into sunshine. It is not tall and stately, nor is it abundantly colorful. It is very close to the ground. I'm not sure if it has a fragrance at all. The flower does not bloom among fine greenery everywhere, where the breezes promise warmer days coming. It is a blossom of snow.
I learned long ago that I am no tropical flower. I came to being in an icy environment, cold and distant. The birth itself nearly killed me and the birth-mother. My collarbone had to be broken in order for me to break through and emerge into the glaring lights of the delivery room. With a splint on for two or three days my collarbone healed up, I was told.
I have not actually studied about all the characteristics of the edelweiss, but I plan on it soon, for as soon as I can afford it I shall have a tattoo of its image on my right hand. It will serve as a reminder that I am strong enough to break through the ice to get to the sun - to a life fulfilled. It is not a wonder to me that when I go up into the foothills and mountains of the Cascades here in Washington State, every fiber of my being comes alive. Never fails to happen. Snow is my life. Being there makes me feel as though I am truly home - that I belong to my birth-place and my unseen-continued-journey place.
I am bringing aspects of the mountains into my home by way of rustic, lodge-like features. I love pines and pinecones, cedars, hemlocks, firs, birds, bears, well, you get the idea. My shower curtain looks like buckskin with pine needle and pinecone designs. I have many stones of varying sizes, birds' nests that were abandoned and would fall by the time the Autumn rains come. I never took nests when they were another's home. And I have many and various feathers that have come my way.

Some things one's spirit just knows. Does this sound like I long to belong? I think so, too. So, I will continue working at the ice, again. Some day the light of truth will shine on me and I will understand. For now I am grateful to be that edelweiss. I have beauty in my own way; I have integrity and value in my own way. I live because Creator is my life.
From "The Sound of Music": "Edelweiss, every morning you greet me. Small and white, clean and bright, you look happy to meet me. Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow, bloom and grow forever. Edelweiss, bless my homeland forever."