First Day

 

It won't last.  It's just the intimation of winter.  The promise that it's coming.

I have lived here all my life and I enjoy the passing of the seasons.  Some more than others, to be honest.  

I don't mind winter, as such.  I actually dislike spring break up a whole lot more, with it's grey dreary days, the slush, the sloppy roads, the drying up, then hello, here's another dump of snow!

But winter?  I don't mind too much.  As long as it doesn't get too extreme.  Not too cold.  Not too much snow.

But my preferences don't matter.  The weather will do what the weather will.

I find it comforting to see the seasons come and go.  The constant cycle of renewal.  The spring green, deepening into summer.  The sometimes gaudy autumn.  Then the quiet of winter, when snow blankets everything.  Sounds are subdued.  People seem to draw in on themselves.  Take time to reflect at the ending of the year.  The cycle complete.

For many years now the most important day of the year for me is not the 'official' calendar new year but the winter solstice.  That is the day when the true new year begins.  The sun stops it's journey south and begins to return.  The returning of the light.

People living a lot further north than I do have actual endless dark.  For me it's just a very short 'day'.  And often times, like today, that 'day' is pretty dark.  Gloomy.  On those days, the snow helps as it amplifies what light there is.

And so must we amplify what light there is.  Dig for those silver linings.  Light candles, actually or even just metaphorically.

Time to lift each other up.  Until the returning of the sun.