Winter has finally arrived! SNOW!

[photos of Lake Waban]

Am so excited that after an unseasonably warm and dry November, December and 3/4 of January, we have finally had two small snow falls. The world looks pristine and renewed: the outline of leafless trees stand out in stark relief, the evergreens preening under their powdery white mantles, the tracks of birds and the occasional rabbit reminders of the creatures that move in the stillness of the night.

Spent two hours shoveling out the parking lot and opening up pathways around my house, making certain that I push the snow back as far as possible to make room for future storms. There is something so satisfying about sliding one's shovel into a deep drift and gently tossing the feather light load off to one side, and then slowly building up a pile of one's own that peaks like a freshly made meringue. I was almost tempted to drop to the ground and make an "angel" by moving my arms up and down to make the wings, and my legs from the center out to the sides for the skirt, just as children have done for generations! I resisted however, and just kept working until, satisfied by my labor, I came inside to make a delicious steaming hot stew, laced with plenty of red wine.

Tonight, cozily curled up in front of my pellet stove, I will continue my enthralling read of Steve Jobs' biography by Walter Isaacson. Though indisputable a genius, the fact that Jobs was adopted played a critical role in his sense of identity, his personality, a need for total control of his environment, and his drive to succeed. One of his friends in his early post college years said,

"It made him independent. He followed the beat of a different drummer, and that came from being in a different world than he was born into."

I highly recommend this book, both because Jobs is a brilliant, fascinating person, inventor, entrepreneur, perfectionist, an adoptee who soared like an eagle, but also because of the extremely complex portrayal the author offers his riveted readers. As an adopted person, I find that many character traits, Jobs' unrelenting drive, his perception of the world and others, often resonate with my personal experience.