In the words of Zen Monk Shunryu Suzuki, “Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. Unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transience, we suffer.”

Saturday morning, leaving a dead snowmobile behind on the Alturas Lake ski trails and walking to the highway, old groomer Davinius was suffering.  Just two days before he had been so pleased with how great the trails looked after a ginzu grooming. Now they were glazed over, hard and icy, with shifting patches of grapple creating amoebic shapes that settled into comfortable depressions on the windswept meadows.

But, you know, everything changes, and on Sunday, Davinius awoke with a warm feeling of perfect composure… an inch or two of new snow has already fallen, covering the ice, a professional investigation into the snowmobile’s charging system malfunction was underway, and morning coffee with his valentine, the pretty girl from the village, was a particularly good brew.