Whipple Dam in Winter / Whirling Rainbow of Peace

It was a day of adventures, eating, and exercise. My husband wanted to jog at the Barrens near the shooting range, and so we went there first. He jogged and I walked, photographing the cool ice shapes and designs in the frozen puddles. On our way back out, we saw a sun halo, or as I like to call them, whirling rainbows of peace (prior blip here).

You may see my photo of our whirling rainbow in the extras; it almost seemed like there was a second circle around the first. They are quite magical, really. Halos are formed when there are millions of ice crystals in the clouds surrounding the sun or moon. The light both refracts AND reflects, which is pretty cool. Typically, a sun or moon halo is a sign of rain coming. A sun halo is science wrapped up in beauty AND mystery.

Here is my favorite part of one of the stories about such celestial formations: "In our Seneca Tradition, Grandmother Twylah has taught us many uses for the Whirling Rainbow of Peace. When we are having difficulty in any situation, we visualize the Rainbow of Peace encircling the situation, the people involved, and the disharmony. Then we twinkle our eyes with joy, sending our inner-peace to the situation. In using this technique and following it with ceremony, we place our intention inside the Whirling Rainbow of Peace." (Don't laugh - I used this technique often as the former Manager of Access at Penn State's World Campus!)

We followed that up with a fine hot lunch at Couch's in McAlevy's Fort, and then headed to Whipple Dam to check things out. We had not been there in a while and it was so nice to be back. There was just a thin layer of ice in some places, looking like the artist's brush strokes on a painting, but by afternoon's end, even some of that had melted. Above you may see some lovely reflections when the sun came out for just a moment, and suddenly made everything shine!

I had a marvelous day, full of so many beautiful things that I have not even worked my way through the photo sets yet! But here are two pictures from my day that made me smile, and here are two songs to go with them: for the shiny, sunny shot above, Waylon Jennings, with Didn't We Shine (which I also used here); and for the whirling rainbow of peace in my extras, here are Dolly Parton and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, with Peace Train. Now, jump on the peace train!