We listened

We listened for a voice crying in the wilderness.
And we heard the jubilation of wolves!

— Durwood L. Allen

Thou art

“Thou art all ice.
Thy kindness freezes.”

~William Shakespeare

If Aragorn survives

If Aragorn survives this war, you will still be parted. If Sauron is defeated and Aragorn made king and all that you hope for comes true you will still have to taste the bitterness of mortality. Whether by the sword or the slow decay of time, Aragorn will die. And there will be no comfort for you, no comfort to ease the pain of his passing. He will come to death an image of the splendor of the kings of Men in glory undimmed before the breaking of the world. But you, my daughter, you will linger on in darkness and in doubt as nightfall in winter that comes without a star. Here you will dwell bound to your grief under the fading trees until all the world is changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent.

~Elrond, The Lord of the Rings

Oh, but you are alone

Oh, but you are alone. Who knows what you have spoken to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all your life seems to shrink, the walls of your bower closing in about you, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in? So fair, yet so cold like a morning of pale Spring still clinging to Winter's chill.

~Grima Wormtongue, The Lord of the Rings

Deep within

Deep within the winter forest among the snowdrift wide
You can find a magic place where all the fairies hide....

~Author Unknown

Are those the magic fairy wands

Are those the magic fairy wands
glistening on the tree
or only winter icicles that I see?

~Author Unknown

Nature

Nature has undoubtedly mastered the art of winter gardening and even the most experienced gardener can learn from the unrestrained beauty around them.

~Vincent A. Simeone

One

One of my current pet theories is that the winter is a kind of evangelist, more subtle than Billy Graham, of course, but of the same stuff.

~Shirley Ann Grau

Winter dawn

Winter dawn is the color of metal,
The trees stiffen into place like burnt nerves.

~Sylvia Plath, Waking in Winter

Spring, summer, and fall fill us with hope; winter alone reminds us of the human condition.

~Mignon McLaughlin,

I like

I like these cold, gray winter days. Days like these let you savor a bad mood.

~Bill Watterson

Your pain is

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain. And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy; And you would accept the seasons of your heart, even as you have always accepted the seasons that pass over your fields. And you would watch with serenity through the winters of your grief.

~Kahlil Gibran

What is life?

What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.

~Crowfoot - Blackfoot warior and orator