Winter

When We’re Feeling Small

/ katemckinney79 / Leave a comment

Maybe we said something we didn’t mean.

Or shared too much.

Maybe someone said something hurtful

or unloaded their baggage

onto us.

Maybe something happened

that shakes us to the core.

But whatever the cause, sometimes

we’re tipped upside down, turned inside out.

Sometimes we feel so small,

so vulnerable,

every thread of ourselves feels ready

to snap.

That is a good time to get close

to the fine details of life.

So close

that we see

that the small

is big and wonder-filled.

So close

that we feel ourselves looking inside

tiny worlds within worlds

So close that we come to realize

we are both small and big

like everything else on this planet.

This universe.

We are not alone in this.

But maybe most of all,

we need to remember

whole worlds of small

hold on.

Long Shadows, Winter Light

/ katemckinney79 / Leave a comment

I’ve been watching
long shadows stretch across snowdrifts.
Letting my eyes rest
on sunlit peaks and contours,
feeling the warmth just by looking,
then skating my eyes
up those lines.

There is a feeling of
seeking, reaching, wondering…
…what next?

And yet,
it is in this moment,
this treasure of a moment
that I feel so grateful
to be in.
To truly see
and be a part of.

I do love winter.
At least,
in the beginning.
Ask me again in February,
or especially March,
and I might give you a different answer.

It is through the changes
in the seasons that I find joy.
And there are always, always
changes.

If I keep my focus
on this single moment,
this single day…
appreciate what this one day has to offer…
whether it be the strange, sudden
darkness that washes over me like a wave
in November,
or the shocking sunlight
on rare December mornings
that breaks through tree branches,
or the red bark of dogwood shrubs
growing even brighter late in winter.

Each moment is both long and short.

I like this time of year
when I get to focus in
on both
the darkness and the light.

Also, what better time to cozy up with a book?

If you’re in a cold climate like I am (where it’s only just reached a whopping 1°F) and you perhaps need a reminder of summer, here’s a taste of heat from the first page of my YA book, WHEN TO HOLD ON.

GIRL MEETS GIRL

The only sound
in the public library’s vestibule
comes from the pages I turn
as I sort through discarded magazines
until

a girl crashes into the quiet
like a cold splash in the August heat.
I try to step aside

meet turquoise
burnt sienna
the smell of cinnamon
green eyes that sink deep,
like soft rain soaking parched soil.

My heart skips. It’s a moment
or eons
before that girl moves around me,

swings the second door open,
walks through.

~ Kate McKinney, WHEN TO HOLD ON

IndieBound

Bookshop

Amazon

Barnes&Noble

So wrap up warm
and sink deep
as you follow
the curves
of whatever story
you choose.

‘Tis the Season for Snow

/ katemckinney79 / Leave a comment

Snow came early this year.

In fact, the morning that I wrote my last post was the day it all started. Exactly a month ago, back when we were still in the middle of November, I had at last pulled together my photos and poems about the beautiful fall foliage. The weeks previous to that, I’d let myself bask in the autumn light, watch as Nature shed its layers, and breathe in the changes both startling and inspiring. But it took a while for my thoughts to steep and my words to settle, like tea leaves sinking to the bottom of a mug.

That day, however, I awoke in the wee hours of the morning and felt the burn to finally release those words and pictures. And good thing I did, because after clicking “Publish,” I went to the window and pulled open the shade. In the blue pre-dawn light, I noticed a snow-covered landscape.

Technically, it wasn’t our first snow of the year, but it was much more substantial.

It was as though Autumn had chosen to masquerade as Winter.

Having released my autumn images that morning, I happily put on my boots, grabbed my camera, and tromped into the snow to find new things to see.

My favorite
were these purple asters
looking bold and determined.

Below, they remind me
of snow cones,
refreshing and cool.
Bunches of sweet ice.

Then the days warmed
…and snow melted.

…And a different cold morning
left a layer of ice fringe.

Where even
something so still
—frozen, in fact—
looked as though it
could
perpetually be moving.

When
—in just-above-freezing temperatures—
both ice and water
clung
like crystals and globes,
a chandelier
whose structure was grass
and the light reflected
came from a gray sky.

And under that purple-hued gray
and misty blue,
a frosted prairie
just two years old
stood around
this Great Mother Tree
where
beginnings and endings
come full circle

And today,
she stands in snow,
a map of white and black lines,
ever crooked
with shades of gray everywhere between.

Happy tromping! Happy writing! Happy finding new things to see!