The day before the two week snow blizzard that left us cut off from the world.

We are as forlorn as children lost in the woods. When you stand in front of me and look at me, what do you know of the griefs that are in me and what do I know of yours. And if I were to cast myself down before you and weep and tell you, what more would you know about me than you know about Hell when someone tells you it is hot and dreadful? For that reason alone we human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to Hell.

Karl Franz Kafka, letter to Oskar Pollak, November 8, 1903.

(This picture of me walking in the woods was taken by my sister in early February 2012. The next day we woke up it started snowing all day long. It didn’t stop for two whole weeks. The elders say they had not seen so much snow in decades. It was indeed one cold February.)