3/24/26 (an entry from my dream journal)

Daniel and I sat next to one another during our nightly devotional. I looked into his warm blue eyes, and my heart filled with gratitude as my mind began to catch up with reality. One year ago today, I was a mere month away from meeting the love of my life. This passed year happened so fast; it’s hard to take in sometimes. Could this be a dream? A construct of my imagination? Could he really be real? I found myself asking these very questions aloud as I began to absorb the goodness of God together with Daniel as if it were a vapor we were breathing in. Shortly after, we went to sleep.

“My beloved speaks and says to me: “Arise, my love, my beautiful one, and come away, for behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land.”

‭‭Song of Solomon‬ ‭2‬:‭10‬-‭12‬ ‭

I had a dream I went to a secret place in the mountains. It was secluded by trees, and though it was clearly spring, it held snow. I started playing in the snow, and then I took pictures of the sun setting on a field of blooming flowers in front of the mountain. I stuck my hand beneath the snow, and I felt ice water, perfectly chilled though it wasn’t too cold to touch. It felt cool and refreshing, almost nostalgic, like the coolness of the ocean on a hot summer day. I woke up in the midst of building a snowman.

As I awoke from my dream, I realized it was symbolic. I left winter last year and stepped into spring with the love of my life. I left the season of singleness and entered the season of togetherness. The beautiful thing about this dream was its depiction of me—alone, not longing for spring, but rather “playing in the snow”.

“The Magic of Winter” is inspired by my dream. There’s something wonderful about that small window of time between winter and spring; it reminds us of the goodness of God. “The window” is where my dream took place. The glistening snow that surrounded me represented the life I once lived; the blooming flowers in the distance represented the love that awaited me. The life that many might call empty or lonely, I chose to embrace whole heartedly with gratitude. It was in making this choice, I would learn the biggest blessings are on the other side of surrender. When we notice the magic of that which surrounds us, we position ourselves to have hope; we position ourselves to see “the window”.

I began to see winter differently as I put my dream to paper. I began to see winter as a beautiful frame surrounding spring. The purity of the glistening snow, void of color, starkly contrasts with the vibrancy of spring. Together they highlight the beauty of one another. This little 6×6 inch acrylic painting was created with flowers reflecting our wedding color palette and will serve as a reminder to embrace the magic in every season, remaining hopeful for what’s to come.

We recently endured the last snow of the season, and though there’s not enough snow on the ground to finish the snowman, the magic of winter remains. The magic of our first weeks of marriage, our honeymoon, even the chaos. Every struggle brought us closer to Eden. Every winter storm brought us to spring. 

.

The winter snow

is all around.

The barren trees

don’t make a sound.

.

We long to see

leaves of green,

the blooming flowers

not yet seen.

.

But just look closely,

some can see

the window that waits

to set us free.

.

The window of hope

for what’s in store,

the beauty of spring

forevermore.

.

When we find the window

longing ceases;

it shifts to hope

as joy increases.

.

We begin to see magic

wherever we go.

Our faith inspires us

to play in the snow.