The light belies the cold. Even with six inches of snow on the ground, even with temperatures barely rising above 20 F there is no doubt that we are moving toward Spring. Inexorably moving forward, constantly turning the present into the past.
I hear people wishing time away all around me; wanting winter to be gone, wanting the day to be over, wanting it to be the weekend already. I usually don’t say anything but I am thinking be careful, don’t push away this day, this week, this season. It will be gone soon enough.
I don’t mean to be a Pollyanna, but I am acutely aware that time is such a fleeting thing. Our measure of it so subjective that it is only when we look back over a much longer swath of it then that which lies ahead do we really gain any perspective. I don’t want to wish any of it gone. I want to slow everything down, see it more clearly – the subtle shifts of color, the inflections in a song, hold a bit of beating wildness between my palms.
Some years ago in answer to a question of how I should move forward a wise friend of mine said I should sit still. I looked at her incredulously and then decided to try it. For a week I didn’t take any action. I watched the situation and observed myself. Slowly but surely the dilemma became clear as did my response to it. Sure, there are moments we have to act quickly and with decisiveness but if there is enough stillness around them it becomes much easier to discern which is which.
Last night just before bed I stepped out beyond the porch and looked up. Only in the very cold can the stars be that bright. Only snow can reflect back the moonlight with that thin and fleeting clarity. Let spring come as it will. Daylight is gaining with each revolution and in the meantime the snow is gleaming.
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