{"id":2358,"date":"2025-12-16T19:20:53","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T00:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/?p=2358"},"modified":"2025-12-16T19:20:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T00:20:53","slug":"16-decembrance-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/2025\/12\/16\/16-decembrance-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"#16 decembrance 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the pale daylight just before sunset I walked in silence. Our dog loves everything she can find in the ditches filled with dead weeds. I had the road to myself, as I moved through this season. In the quiet routine of getting outside, the trees stood tall and the patterns of branch structure whispered hints of solutions to the studio questions I had tousled with this afternoon. I stopped for a moment and in that stillness I leaned in with my whole body to the significance of cold and the coming night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bottles with Ailanthus Stems<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Winter Grace<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you have seen the snow
under the lamppost
piled up like a white beaver hat on the picnic table
or somewhere slowly falling
into the brook
to be swallowed by water,
then you have seen beauty
and know it for its transience.
And if you have gone out in the snow
for only the pleasure
of walking barely protected
from the galaxies,
the flakes settling on your parka
like the dust from just-born stars,
the cold waking you
as if from long sleeping,
then you can understand
how, more often than not,
truth is found in silence,
how the natural world comes to you
if you go out to meet it,
its icy ditches filled with dead weeds,
its vacant birdhouses, and dens
full of the sleeping.
But this is the slowed-down season
held fast by darkness
and if no one comes to keep you company
then keep watch over your own solitude.
In that stillness, you will learn
with your whole body
the significance of cold
and the night,
which is otherwise always eluding you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Patricia Fargnoli, in Winter<\/em>, Hobblebush Books, 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the pale daylight just before sunset I walked in silence. Our dog loves everything she can find in the ditches filled with dead weeds. I had the road to myself, as I moved through this season. In the quiet routine of getting outside, the trees stood tall and the patterns of branch structure whispered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rough-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2361,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2358\/revisions\/2361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}