Thanks for the Sunshine

I imagine the trees outside talking about the weather. What would they say today? Looking out the window at all of the snow on the ground I imagine a grumpy tree muttering, “Enough already!” But when I think again about what I know of trees I’m pretty sure they’re saying

Thanks for the sunshine

today.

Birds have been busy at the feeders outside my office window and squirrels have been scampering up and down trees in our backyard. The clear blue cloudless sky looks inviting. Time for a walk in the woods, I think. Will the trails be packed down by other people’s boots already or will it be a slog through deep fluffy snow?

It was one of those winter days that suddenly dream of spring, when the sky is blue and soft and clear, and the wind has dropped its voice and whispers instead of screaming, and the sun is out and the trees look surprised, and over everything there is the faintest, palest tint of green.”
— Shirley Jackson

Wondering and Wandering

It feels like a day for wondering and wandering, filling my senses with the beauty of the new fallen snow and wondering at how all of nature survives and thrives our long snowy winters.

I learned a new word this morning—apricity. It means the warmth of the sun in winter. Who knew such a word existed? Today is a good day to notice and be grateful for apricity.

It seems counter-intuitive to me that in the Northern Hemisphere the sun is closest to the earth around January 4 and furthest from the earth around July 5. But the relative warmth of the sun is determined more by the angle of sunlight than by how close it is to the earth. In winter, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun and in summer it is tilted toward the sun with winter and summer solstice delineating the extremes of that tilt.

Today on my walk I will think about apricity and how the earth orbits the sun and how large the universe is. I will wonder at the beauty of it all and at being alive in this beautiful world. Will you also head out for a walk and say “Thanks for the sunshine,” on this bright late February day?

Food for thought

Here’s some food for thought by (who else?) Mary Oliver:

THE FOURTH SIGN OF THE ZODIAC (PART 3)

I know, you never intended to be in this world.
But you’re in it all the same.

So why not get started immediately.

I mean, belonging to it.
There is so much to admire, to weep over.

And to write music or poems about.

Bless the feet that take you to and fro.
Bless the eyes and the listening ears.
Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.
Bless touching.

You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.
Or not.
I am speaking from the fortunate platform
of many years,
none of which, I think, I ever wasted.
Do you need a prod?
Do you need a little darkness to get you going?
Let me be as urgent as a knife, then,
and remind you of Keats,
so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,
he had a lifetime.

   — Mary Oliver

May you walk in beauty.

Tree shadows on the snow

Tracks

That’s a lot of snow!