Roses, Christmas, Snow: Beauty and Loss

"At Christmas I no more desire a rose
Than wish a snow in May’s new-fangled mirth;
But like of each thing that in season grows."
William Shakespeare

This has long been my aspiration - to like of each thing that in season grows, but Winter is a tough sale for me. The days are short, the darkness penetrating, and it's cold, cold, cold, especially when - like me - you don't have a heating system in your house. Nonetheless, I get excited about snow, I love walking in winter-bare woods, it's cozy drinking hot chocolate in front of my toasty wood-burning stove, and there's nothing I can do about it, anyhow.

However, I can't suppress my satisfaction those years when my roses continue to bloom well into December. Maybe not until Christmas, but December 15 isn't bad, especially since two weeks ago we actually had snow, which excited me no end and prompted several photographs. There is such a crystalline, pure beauty about the snow-decked landscape; it is as sublime as the lushest garden in midsummer.

There are all kinds of spiritual lessons in Winter, too, but it is late, and I want to mention the loss of a wonderful, warm-spirited, truly consequential human being, the Bostoner Rebbe, Rabbi Levi Yitzchok Horowitz, of blessed memory. I discovered a few days ago that he died on December 5 at 88. When I was at Brandeis, I became a follower of his, and had I stayed in Boston, I believe I would be a Chasidista (female Hassidic follower) until this day. He was not perfect, of course, but he was warm, kind, compassionate, and principled, and he cared about people. I feel a deep sadness knowing he is gone, of course wishing I had found a way to communicate with him and let him know how to this day, his lessons and words have stayed with me, and that to this day, I think of him with respect and love. But maybe, since he was a Rebbe of exceptional spiritual gifts, he knows anyhow.