I woke up Sunday morning to a new world, Reader.

Did you see it too?

A blanket of white covered every inch of the landscape and all its features, while snowflakes were still swirling through the air. It felt like waking up inside another dream, inside a magical snow globe, a winter wonderland.

I sat up slowly, stretched, and stared out my window just to watch in wonder. Soon I noticed a little flock of small birds (Tyler guesses Juncos) playing in the snow-laden branches of a tall evergreen.

As they flitted up and down, my curiosity grew...

Each time one lands on a branch, snow drops down below - often right onto another bird, who flutters its wings to shake it off and flits over to a branch on a nearby tree. Not flying away, just perched, and quickly flitting back toward the evergreen, but higher up, to do the same thing to another bird below!

They hop and fluster, and pop up again like a game. I could be missing the biological purpose of this interaction entirely, but it seems they're just playing in the fresh snow with each other the way children do.

It made me recall my favorite winter days when my dad (who taught public school) would get a snow day and we'd suit up to run out and play. Snowball fights, snowmobiles, sledding and more.

What a delight to witness and remember this morning.

That memory led me to invite my niblings on a winter wonder walk on the farm my sister just bought. We bundled up and headed out into the white world to see what stories we could find written in the snow.

How to Host a Winter Wonder Walk If you want to experience this kind of winter magic yourself, here are a few essentials: Dress smart. Bundle up in layers of wool and water-resistant clothes. Gloves, hat and scarf! Apply tallow to your face and hands before going out to protect your skin. Pack your bag with fun - fire starting options, headlamp, ID books and little bags for collecting. Best tip: Invite children! Their sense of wonder is contagious. Play survivor to keep the group motivated in the cold. Where would you find shelter? Food? Water? Forage for nuts and berries and anything that seems edible. Search for shelter. Track animals. Find and follow tracks. Don't rush past them - stop, observe, try to read the story. Look for brush piles, protective shelter and dens - where wildlife activity concentrates in winter. Build a campfire. Collect the driest things you can find along the way. It's a challenge but doable. Bring snacks - foraging in winter is challenging! Go slow, stop often, listen to the layers near and far. Winter soundscapes are a unique! Pick a winter bouquet of beautiful dried flowers, seed heads and branches to take home as a reminder of the day. Watch the sunset casting golden light on white snow and soak in the beauty.

Snow is one of nature's best storytellers.

Every track, every mark, every disturbance tells us something about who passed through, where they were going, what they were doing.

This ancient practice of tracking (learning to read these signs) might be more fundamental to being human than we realize.

Some anthropologists and archaeologists believe that tracking animals is actually how we learned to create written language.

We first learned to track animals as a survival need - to find food, to find our way to water, to find safety. But as this skill sharpened, and great master trackers learned to tell the story of the animal (which way it turned its head, where it stopped, why it started running) all by looking at tracks, we started to realize we could write stories this way too. With symbols.

This idea frames tracking as a form of "land-based literacy."

From footprints in snow and mud to letters on a page. From following deer trails to creating songlines. The connection is extraordinary when you think about it.

These are things that fascinate me, Reader.

What about you?

Winter Wonder Scavenger Hunt - Item #3 Find non- human tracks in the snow (or mud, if you aren't in a snowy place right now)! Fun elements to look for: Direction of travel Gait pattern (walking, running, hopping) Size and shape Where the tracks lead Any story the tracks might tell Email me your photos and interpretation of the story the tracks are telling!

This simple practice connects you to thousands of years of human observation. It connects you to the origins of language itself. And to the wild beings sharing your place right now.

In wonder of winter,

Kendra

P.S. Hit reply and tell me what's moving through your winter landscape, or through your mind these days.

It really helps when you share your stories with me!

Written by a human - Kendra Marie Hoffman

Supported by another human - Tyler (the bird lover)