This Morning's Gift

Wintertime walking is a real treat, dear reader.  If you're like me, opening the door to the outside brings a bracing drop in temperature, one that causes you to gulp cold air into your lungs and wake up.  Following that beginning, there is so much to enjoy.  Visible breath; brisk and invigorating freshness; water stopped in its normal downward path in splendid icicles; snow, sometimes with snowflakes that you can see the shape of; muffled sounds when snow is newly falling and crunchy steps once the snow has melted and refrozen; sometimes foggy low hanging clouds that leave the next 40 feet a mystery; delicate frost that graces every surface in sight.  (Just so we're clear, I took the following picture in hopes of capturing it, but didn't really succeed.  The other photos are from those who are more skilled than I.)

The picture really doesn't do it justice.  

Today as I walked, I thought about the frost that I saw.  It was thicker than normal, but not in an overbearing way.  I tried to think of the right word to describe how the frost had settled on the grass and tree branches, giving them a beautiful white, almost shining, outline.  

Glazed?  Nope.  

Frosted.   Mmmm, close, but not quite.  

Dusted?  Naw.  

Um...encased?  No.  That sounds almost morbid.  

Encrusted, then.  Nope, not quite.  

Engraced.  Yes, that is it.  

So I marveled as I passed so many ordinary trees, engraced with frost to make a truly beautiful sight. 

Engraced is a made up word, dear reader.  Its what my brain suggested when I was running out of descriptions for the winter phenomenon.  Graced would probably suffice, and in looking it up, the dictionary shares that grace has connections with pleasing and grateful.  The word, in its noun and verb form, contains beautiful meaning, such as "simple elegance or refinement," "to do honor or credit to," and "adorn".   

And maybe its because Valentine's Day is coming up, but I thought about how love makes the most ordinary things splendid.  That may sound tacky, but I believe that it is true.  A life graced with love is a really beautiful one.