Happy New Year! Yes, I know, I am over a week late with that, but it’s taken me that long to get in the 2013 groove. As much as I love the holidays, I confess that I am relieved by the return of routine. Dare I say, even invigorated by it. It’s funny, this new year thing…making resolutions, starting clean, etc. It’s a purely psychological phenomenon, since nothing really changes in the world when we cross the threshold into a new year. But nonetheless I’ve enjoyed plotting and planning for 2013, and digging in with fresh, new year enthusiasm. So forget those post-holiday blues. It helps that I love winter. This quote from Adam Gopnik’s book Winter says it best:

My heart jumps when I hear a storm predicted…my smile rises when cold weather is promised…Gray skies and December lights are my idea of secret joy, and if there were a heaven, I would expect it to have a lowering violet-gray sky…and white lights on all the trees and the first flakes just falling, and it would always be December 19 – the best day of the year, school out, stores open late, Christmas a week away. 

And my heart is in pitter-patter mode as we await the winter storm christened ‘Gandolf’ to descend and give the Montana mountains a fresh coat of white. Something about snow, the clean white to brighten up winter’s gray, or sparkle crisply in the sun, the quiet that accompanies it as it blankets everything…makes me want to write poetry. But I will spare you my Cowgirl Yoga poetry, and instead share some inspiring photos of two of my favorite things: horses + snow. Most of my Pinterest perusing (which should be noted, can be more of a time vampire than Facebook) is of horse images – and the ones of horses in the snow take my breath away. These are of the Cowgirl Yoga herd, who are wintering at the ranch and clearly relishing their time off to play in the snow. Yeehaw & Namaste.