There’s nothing like the silence and stillness of a lake in winter.

No boaters, no swimmers, and until the ice is thick enough, no one fishing.

The water crawlers and dragonflies are hibernating.

The fish are invisible.

The shore birds are huddled in their nests.

The winter lake is suspended animation.

It is waiting

Resting

Conserving its energy

Still breathing

Still filled with the promise of green, of sun, of splash, of the happy sound of children’s laughter.

The winter lake is a promise.

It’s a quiet cradle of new life

Cloaked in the whisper of a breeze in the distant pines

In the crackle of the ice.

Time seems to have stopped, but winter is never forever.

John Terauds, CPE Intern