With springtime upon us, I actually will miss the foot-deep snowfalls that are the hallmark of a good Maine winter.

The deep snows in the Pine Tree State are angel white, the winter skies are celestial blue and the pine-tree forests are a verdant evergreen. I am struck with reverent awe every time I peer down into a foot-deep snowfall, seeing the mystical aqua-blue luminescence emanating from the midst of the pure-white brilliance.

Have you ever seen that? Next time a foot of new snow falls, peer down into the depths of it and you will see this miracle of creation.

I certainly don’t understand the light-physics of that phenomenon, but I do understand that the radiant pureness of the snow here is because it is unfouled by industrial waste.

I grew up in central Michigan, an hour north of Detroit (“The Motor City”), in the heartland of the automotive manufacturing industry. We got a lot of snow, but the snows there seemed to be a dingy white with a grayish tint to them because of the air pollution of over-industrialization.

After working in metropolitan, traffic-jammed Washington, D.C. for 33 years, I was glad to move my family to beautiful Maine.

May Maine winters — and all seasons — forever remain the pristine natural environment that the Creator perfectly designed them to be! “Maine: The Way Life Should (always) Be.”

Eric Stout

Winslow