The quiet beauty of hoar frost
By Helenka Bernard
Every year I wait...
I go through the murky, almost sad winter days that lead up to that first breathtaking winter day — the day when the frost brings its awe-inspiring views. In a world filled with so many fake and artificial creations, I cannot help but stop and take it in — shaky, cold fingers — but oh man, is she a beauty. The hoar frost has brought the moments that make you go, “Ahhh, it's here — the winter!”
PHOTOS BY HELENKA BERNARD, click for larger images
As I pause there, taking in the marvel of what we get to experience — unique frost patterns shaped on obscure objects, the almost “monochromatic” look — I realize how little we are. We as humans tend to think we are quite something, you know, something to be appreciated. Until you see it: the beauty in a microscopic pattern of frost and a snowflake. Your world gets turned into a black-and-white film, where the little flakes are the grain — tiny flakes of moments that move through time, almost like the sand in an hourglass.
I stand for a second and see everything frozen in time, tucked in for the winter. No wonder it's called “hoar frost.” What better way to describe this moment in time, where the cold turns grey and old, as in old age. We should treat the grey, crystallized pieces with the same respect and dignity as our elders. The grey “old age hoar” does not just happen. If you slow down, slowly it forms from the water droplets in the air, and this breathtaking frost happens. Tiny lines, signs of experience and growth — it's all the same really — the feathery coating of ice crystals resembling a beard with fine, aged hair.
I wonder, will I appreciate this when I am withered, old, slow, paused in time like this frost? Will I blow away when a breeze passes through town, and just melt on the next truck warming up?
The wait is over, and the beauty we call winter has arrived. Let's take the moments — let's take the second — to breathe it all in. Then climb into the warm, heated-seat truck waiting in the middle of the road as you stand there looking at the world!