Mid-winter Cheer

How soft can it be? Intentionally soft – F/1.8 tulip

I am happy that today is the last day of January. Though it’s not been a terrible month, I’m still very glad to leave it behind. I don’t know about you but when we reach the end of January I always feel as if we’ve reached “over-the-hump” time for winter. This January I notice it more than ever, because it also looks like the numbers may finally be dropping on the latest pandemic surge.

February may bring better weather and less COVID, or it might not, but I can always hope that we will swiftly leave behind the bitter cold of this season and the worst of the pandemic.

Every year I hope for an early spring. Sometimes it happens here in Minneapolis, but not often enough for me to take such blessings for granted. Still, we’re turning the corner on January. Hurrah!

Yesterday I bought a small bunch of orange tulips. Looking at them and photographing them today I want to say, “Orange you glad?”

Combine the cheer of bright orange with the jaunty shape of springtime tulips and they do make me glad.

Why I Wake Early

Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety –
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-darkness,
to ease us with warm touching,
to hold us in the great hands of light –
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.

— Mary Oliver