Days pass

This week, one of my children's teachers died.  I saw a colleague who lost his son, and learned of another colleague's desire to beat death of its next victim.  So why are we here?

Watching and waiting

It’s coming….  The meteorologist says it is.  The thick blue scarf-like front to the west resembles an impermeable wall on the digital image.  The sky is black with streetlights vainly trying to pierce the darkness, but it’s not here. 

Will it snow? 

January has been balmy this year with days that beg the young child to dig and the gardener to plant.  Dogs frolic about like it is spring while cats mark their territory. 

It is not winter.  My face is not windburned.  There isn’t a puddle next to the door left by wet boots.  There isn’t a blanket of white or a pile of gray, dingy snow at the end of the road.

Is it part of a 100-year pattern or is it proof of global climate change?   Should it be embraced and appreciated or seen as the end of an era and mourned? 

I wait and watch.  I wonder and wander, my tired thoughts begging for solace.

What are your New Year’s resolutions?

I’m resolving to take a class this winter, take better care of myself, be discovered by a publisher, write poetry (and words for songs), climb things that afford good views (like hills or bluffs), do something with paint and/or mixed media, spend time with family and friends, help others, start a prayer circle, give away stuff that others need more than I do, walk and ride bicycles more places than last year, laugh more, sleep more, and find joy without glittering snowflakes to tame the biting winds of winter.  I’ve got more things to add to the list, but that will be for New Year’s resolutions installment #2 in a few months.  

Today made me miss the mild 40 degree F temperatures we’d been experiencing as the wind froze my naked face this evening.  Even running man looked a bit stiffer than usual.  Running man is a trim, older gent wearing a glow-in-the-dark vest who can be seen briskly jogging through the neighborhood about the same time every night.  He doesn’t say “hi” or wave to anyone, he just keeps running in his own space and time.   I wonder what he resolved to do in 2012.  How about you?