The Prickly Green of Life

The green is itching to get out, I can feel it. And yet the snow remains and the cold envelopes like a hair shirt that we cannot shake. This season of ice has been painful and the roads have hurt so badly with the sores of empty asphalt and sometimes bottomless and they can devour a car or truck with one gulp.

So here we all sit watching out the window for that ride out of this cage of frigid life which holds us captive many moments of every year of our lives. Most January to Decembers hold winters that mystify and invigorate, but when they out stay their welcome a hate builds up inside and a need burns to move on and make the warmer world home.

But warm will turn to hot, humid and sticky like a wet shirt that won’t come off our hard breathing bodies. Even our breath on those days is hard to deal with as the tears of our bodies come in droves from our foreheads rather our now dry eyes.

Wishing away life to find that comfortable home can be fun in the imagination – but rarely is so in real life.

© Christi Broersma - 2009

A Long Drawn Out Good-bye

Life has gotten more than a bit crazy for me lately, things breaking down and needing to be replaced, all the stuff that makes for an interesting spring time. I want to work in my garden!! I'm sick of snow, cold weather and simply winter in general. We washed my car today so of course it's going to snow 3-6 inches tomorrow. UGH!

Weather all over is crazy, and extreme too. So my wish for the coming week - after all this craziness is 45 to 50 degree temps and just a little bit of spring...please!

Michigan's Gales of Winter

The waters of Lake Michigan are not a place to be when the lake and winds whip up into a storm. The Great Lakes can develop some really nasty blows. Consider the legends and the mysteries surrounding many of the ships that have sunk during such storms. Many know about the, "Gales of November…" and the Edmund Fitzgerald, or possibly the ship that became synonymous with the Christmas season, the Rouse Simmons or Christmas Ship which made a yearly trek to bring Christmas trees to both the wealthy and the poor alike to the city of Chicago. That is until the great storm of 1912 when it sank.

History is filled with these stories all along the Eastern shore of Lake Michigan as well, but none so well known in our area as the sinking of the passenger ship the Alpena which disappeared in the waves of the huge storm of October 15th of 1880. The ship's normal route was between the port of Grand Haven and Chicago, and the only warning on that day of a coming storm was a rapidly falling barometer just prior to the ship's departure.

After the massive storm much of the ship's debris including a part of a piano and the ship's stern were found on the beach between what is now Lakewood Boulevard and Riley Street. Because of the 68 estimated lives lost and the size of the ship (She was a 175 foot steamer.) the storm has sometimes been referred to as the Alpena storm, as was the beach where much of the debris washed ashore. The bulk of the ship has never been found, and it has become one of the many mysteries in our maritime history.

But this is not the only sinking that is well known in local waters. The Chicora, a 219 foot steam powered ship that was lost in another squall on January 21, 1895 also has never been found and no clues were discovered as to why it sank in that storm.
If you're interested in learning more about the nautical history of the Holland area a great place to begin might be the Holland Museum since it boasts an exhibit of locally known shipwrecks that includes some artifacts from the ship the Alpena. Another great source to find records and stories on lost ships is at the Michigan Shipwreck Research Associates site online found at http://www.michiganshipwrecks.org/news.htm.

The White Stuff!

Winter means little sunshine, and little warmth. But it also means twinkling snow that shines bright despite the lack of the beams from the sun. Personally, I love the change, and that different way to view life that winter gives.

Granted it also means nasty roads, often - and snow that needs shoveling on a regular basis. But, hey - it also has a beauty all its own! No color...just white and shades of gray and black. But the white can be really breath taking! So keep your summer days of heat, humidity and color. This time of the year I want snow - and lots of it!

Pre-Winter

The pre-winter season holds my attention like nothing else does these days. The change from summer to fall was dramatic courtesy of the drought in the midwest this year. Many trees just dropped leaves before any color came, while others flamed brighter than they have in years past.

Now we're entering that "iffy" time of almost winter, but not quite. The weather sooth sayers tell us that the next few weeks will be cold, but then the rest of the winter will be almost balmy...for Michigan. We had that last winter too.

In my years of winter viewing, I've noticed on thing that makes this time of year great for me - as many changes as we have in weather they really cannot predict it well sometimes, and winter is one of those times that can be difficult to understand. It is the one thing that we humans can predict all we want, but often we are still wrong about.

Nature is - for a time at least, still in control. And for that I am glad.

A Winter's Embrace

The beginning of winter. This is my favorite season, not because of the cold, nor because of the darkness, snow or the holidays that are sprinkled in those early months of winter. Instead it is the way that for that moment in time, we must slow down and be in one place when the snow and storms stop traffic and in many ways the whole of the daily parts of life.

To stand at a window and watch a storm have sway in our lives as it blows and puts down layer after layer of work stopping snow. And we stand and watch the silent attacked, for from the inside it seems that silent attacker moving like the great snowy owl in silence like a ghost over the landscape. We can plow and shovel, but if it continues there is no way to conquer Lady Winter. You see she is truly a lady having her way in our lives - holding us captive and if we allow it taking time to actually think and explore life and find the poetry of our lives in the cocooned embrace of a winter storm.