I was away recently skiing in Austria, at the time of significant snowfall. It snowed every day during the week, often heavily. As a consequence, all the downhill skiing and cable cars were closed. Partly due to the snow intensity, partly due to avalanche risk, partly due to poor visibility.

I was fortunate, I was cross-country skiing, so able to carry on during the week. Sadly, the snowshoe walking on my personal agenda was not possible, due to the danger of walking under heavy snow laden trees, plus avalanche risk.

None of this spoilt my week.

As the week progressed, it was strange being in an outside world which for the most part, was monochrome. As you can see in the picture there was almost no colour. The one day the snow eased, turned into a beautiful crisp day, with clear blue skies, and wonderful sunshine. All bringing colour to a previously colourless landscape – perhaps it was the contrast that made the day so spectacular. The following day it was snowing again, so this small breach in the cloud was more impactful when compared with a week of sun deprived days.

The other noticeable thing about the snow filled days - they were quiet, or muffled by the snowfall.

My life is filled with the wonderful colours from Insights Discovery & Insights Deeper Discovery. After a few days I was aware that I was missing colour. Yet, when one looked carefully, the birds were still there, just more plumped up and sheltering more often. The moss, bark and lichen on the trees still had colour, when one looked. I recall trees that still had leaves of burnished bronze from the autumn. The stoat in its’ winter coat with glimmers of gold, when one looked.

So in the seemingly monochrome of the day, there are colours, they just needed one to take time and look more carefully.

This was a good message - sometimes slowing down, looking more carefully, allows the colours of nature to come through. Yet in our busy worlds we have no time – or we do? By slowing at the right time, looking for the richness that the busy people miss, our world can be more colourful. Too often, the business opportunity the ‘lucky’ seem to spot may have been because they were not merely seeing a monochrome landscape, they were spotting the colours of opportunity too.

Strangely, the one day I relaxed into the monochrome world, yet looked more carefully, was the day I travelled most distance, and saw more colour. Now that is food for thought.....

Peter

PS The picture is a colour image.