Lake Baikal

Somehow I stumbled on yet another new wonder that leaves me in awe, a little bit breathless, and with one more thing in the world that I would travel a great distance just to see.  When this happens, I always feel this desperate frustration that such a thing could exist in the world and I am stuck here, nowhere near it. 

Today I learned about the Lake Baikal in Russia. It is located just north of Mongolia and is said to be the world's deepest and oldest lake. I am going to rename it Windswept Water. Because it's so cold, things freeze and then the sun comes out and melts that ice at the same time as fierce winds blow it around creating the freaking coolest formations I have seen in a good while. 

An example:  Stones on the lake's surface freeze to it.  And then the sun heats the stone melting the ice around, and the wind pushes that melting ice and creates a smooth ice pedestal for that stone, and I bow my head in stunned reverence the startling beauties of nature compel me to every time:



They call them Baikal Dzen.  I call them miracles.  I call them reasons to weather the wind.  I call them hope for moments that feel frozen in their weight. Examples of tribulation not only becoming part of us but transformed to one day, when the sun comes out again, lift us up.

These are so stunning to me, I cannot look away. I cannot look away.

Click here for some google images of more Baikal dzen. 

Click here for some photos of other frozen formations found at the formidable Lake Baikal. Your winter just got 5,000 times better.