Snow

He spreads the snow like wool
    and scatters the frost like ashes. (Psalm 147:16)

This beautiful but bleak landscape is my brother-in-law Frank's backyard in eastern Ohio. We traveled there this week to bury my other brother-in-law, John. Of five boys, three have died; only my husband and Frank are left.

So it was a sad journey to Ohio this time. The raw bleakness of this icy snow, this scattering of frost like ashes, seemed an appropriate landscape for the emotions this week.