Winters chill invites solitude. Come in from the cold she beckons and cozy down with a good book in the quietude of evening with an imagined fire in the hearth to chase away the cold. A Friday night, Sabbath; all is peaceful and calm. Yet, my thoughts roam the night sky in circles, as I dawdle to elude the enormity of a blank page.

What is so daunting? Perhaps, just beginning and so I offer this ramble as my starting point. Readers might wonder, why procrastinate when there are infinite topics to explore. Most things seem easy when you are the observer but relatively more challenging when you actually  take the wheel.

I remember in college when I needed to write a paper. Precipitously, I would feel this strong urge to clean the house before I could settle in and begin typing. Suddenly that disorganized closet needed my immediate attention when the disarray had never seemed bothersome before.

My late mother-in-law, Helen seemed to have an affinity towards owls. She had a funky pine cone owl and a couple of ceramic relics that adorned her kitchen shelf. Overtime, I began to associate Helen's wisdom with that of an owl. In her impoverished early beginnings and many hardships endured along the way, she grew in authenticity until she no longer lived for herself but instead loved her life away in service to others.

 It was not until she had left this earthly plane that I recognized this wise woman in her pain riddled body, bent and crippled by arthritis, yet still reaching out to help others in humble and unassuming ways, was Christ in our midst. What strength and courage she mustered to face life’s adversity and wonder with a deep abiding faith. Through the power of Love she walked in the footsteps of her Lord and she blessed my life abundantly, as well as many others.

Liz Sorensen Wessel

Photo of Vermont owl by my brother, Tom Sorensen and a New Hampshire owl taken by my friend, Laura Cassidy