{"id":2249,"date":"2017-01-14T23:06:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-15T03:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marksisco.com\/blog\/?p=2249"},"modified":"2017-01-14T23:11:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-15T03:11:40","slug":"2249","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/?p=2249","title":{"rendered":"Winter Enthusiasm"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2250\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/marksisco.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/DSCF2996C1.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2250\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2250\" src=\"http:\/\/marksisco.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/DSCF2996C1-700x467.jpg\" alt=\"Standing Strong in Winter\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/DSCF2996C1-700x467.jpg 700w, https:\/\/marksisco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/DSCF2996C1.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2250\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Passing Through\u00a0Winter<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Winter, often gray if not blue figuratively, is in it&#8217;s prime. \u00a0While taking a walk through the park just after the new year, I saw this tree. \u00a0It has undoubtedly withstood many winters; some mild, some threatening. \u00a0 Rarely do we have a sustainably threatening winter here in the deep south. \u00a0That said, we have our fair share of ice storms and winter-bookended tornados that threaten even the most deeply-rooted\u00a0hardwoods.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing and thinking about this tree triggered a couple of reminders: \u00a01) Winter can be cold, gloomy, and &#8220;heavy-hearted&#8221;, but like every season or phase of life it is\u00a0only temporary; and, 2) this winter has been mostly mild, with spring already in the foreseeable future. \u00a0For these reasons, I chose to interpret this scene with a warm texture and tone. \u00a0Trees are mostly winter-barren now. \u00a0Leaves are gone with the exception of evergreens and the occasional dead leaf refusing to\u00a0give in to dropping. \u00a0But, the imminence of spring and a hopeful\u00a0new year bears feelings of warmth and optimism.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">&#8220;No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.&#8221;<\/span> ~ Hal Borland<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">&#8220;Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.&#8221;<\/span> ~Pietro Aretino<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">&#8220;O, wind, if winter comes, can spring be far behind?&#8221;<\/span> ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Winter, often gray if not blue figuratively, is in it&#8217;s prime. \u00a0While taking a walk through the park just after the new year, I saw this tree. \u00a0It has undoubtedly withstood many winters; some mild, some threatening. \u00a0 Rarely do we have a sustainably threatening winter here in the deep south. \u00a0That said, we have [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,52,5,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2249"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2255,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2249\/revisions\/2255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marksisco.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}