“No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.”
-Zen Proverb
For the first time in recent memory (my recent memory, of course), we actually woke up to snow falling on Christmas!
A fresh coat of white to start the day.
“There’s something strange and powerful about black-and-white imagery.”
– Stefan Kanfer
These photos were taken today at the Trinity Pawling school in Pawling, New York. The ice rink at the school acts as the home rink for my daughters u16/19 travel hockey team. Today was overcast with a temperature in the mid to upper 20’s, which in my opinion, makes for excellent B & W photos.
A tree just outside the ice rink.
The view looking across the football field.
This light reminds of an old gas lamp.
One of the lights inside the ice rink.
Alone in a parking lot. Too early for the mass of humanity that, in a few hours, will fill the lot in a frenzy of holiday acquisitions.
After a couple of inches of snow last night we headed out for a pretty early run to The Home Depot. It seems that the sunrise after a snowy evening is much more brilliant than every other day.
Alone, waitng for the next train.
“Every breath we take, every step we make, can be filled with peace, joy and serenity.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh
“Win or lose, do it fairly.”
-Knute Rockne
Last night my daughters hockey team played a team of thugs from West Hartford, CT. Pretty much from the outset of the game, they played dirty, all with the blessing of their coach. Although her team was losing badly, they kept playing hard, but fair. And even with this commanding lead, the team continued to deliver cheap shot after cheap shot to our young ladies, even breaking the nose of one of our players.
Earlier in the game, my daughter had been checked into the glass. She wasn’t really injured, but certainly could have been. As the game proceeded. she took several more hits, all without penalties on the opposing players. It was clear to me and the other parents in attendance that they game was getting out of hand. In the third period, my daughter took this cross check to the back of the neck and she went face first directly into the ice (see picture below). Finally a major penalty was assessed to the other team!
Now I am under no illusion that hockey is a totally safe sport. But it is most safe when you play by the established rules and you have referees who enforce those rules. The reason I am writing this entry is because our players did not stoop to the level that this team started on. They went into the game with a high degree of integrity and sportsmanship that never wavered. Not even when the score was 6-0 and they were basically getting mugged left and right, our young ladies retained their composure and played hockey.
Were they frustrated? You bet. Were they pissed off? No doubt. Were they wondering why the referees weren’t calling obvious penalties? Of course. With all of that, they kept playing good, clean, hard hockey. These days, that is all I can ask for. They could have just as easily started employing the same cheap tactics that had been used against them the entire game, but they didn’t. Even though they lost the game, saw the other coach ejected and took a beating, they ended up winning the game because they were the ones who walked off of the ice with their integrity intact. Not so much for the other team.
“While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best.”
-Tom Allen
The first hike of December!!!! As you probably can imagine, it was pretty cold when I started my hike this morning. Not frigidly cold (as it certainly could have been), but cold enough to where I couldn’t just where shorts and a t-shirt (my favorite hiking attire). At 22 degrees, this was one of the coldest mornings that I have hiked this year. With no wind blowing, although it was chilly, it made the hiking easy.
A frosty way to start the day!
2017 Mileage:
12/2/17-6.4-349.32
It was truly an odd feeling to be on the trail today and after almost always being a party to the woods waking up, I was instead for once looking at the coming night. Being pretty deep in the woods and surrounded by many hills, the darkness enveloped me much quicker than the morning light does as the sun rises. As I exited the woods in almost total darkness, I was able to catch the last of the sunset off in the distance.
The sky at Ward Pound Reservation as the sun sets.
More of the same sunset.
Happy Hiking!!!
2017 Mileage:
11/27/17-3.8-342.92
Two of my favorite things: A beautiful sunset and naked trees!
The Zen Hiker 