Winter is Coming (Finally)

Okay, I admit I've never seen Game of Thrones, but someone told me that's where the phrase comes from. Anyway, it fits today. I can at least temporarily set aside the nagging issue of global warming, because the unseasonable mud and brown of a snowless, too-warm winter are gone, for now.

Outside is a 4 or so inch carpet of clean white snow, and the trees are all trimmed in white. The crimson cardinal at my feeder stands out brightly, and a black-and-white junco sits in the barren cherry tree, framed by frigid rigid branches, though he flew off before I got a chance to take a photo. When I went out to re-fill the feeders, I found myself scolded by a chickadee, apparently peeved because it took me so long. The back patio is criss-crossed by rabbit tracks, reminding me that they are hoping for a bite as well.

It's the first significant snow of the season and it's about time. We did get a dusting of snow on Christmas Eve, so technically it was a white Christmas, but barely. This latest, though, was snow in earnest, big, heavy flakes dancing down in the still air, silently piling up all night. I was out shoveling the drive and sidewalks as the dark of night gave way to the pale gray of morning, and it was wonderful. I haven't even fueled the snowblower this year -- I have an intuitive feeling that there will be no need this year; the time will come soon enough when I will have to use it because I will sometime be too frail to shovel seriously, so now, while I can, I'll get the exercise and quiet pleasure of shoveling. My perspective might change if and when we get an 8 or so inch snow, but that's not here now.

Earth will adapt to any changes imposed by man or nature, but we humans are temporal and temporary beings, placed in a particular place at a particular time with particular expectations and likes. Here in the American north, I expect snow and ice, and am glad every time it arrives at the appropriate time or so, because that's a part of my world I grew up with and like to have around.

The snow will melt away, probably too soon according to the forecast, but for now all feels well and proper. Just like me; I too will melt away into my kids' memory soon enough, but for now all feels well and proper. Today, this moment, to quote Robert Browning and to speak metaphorically,

God's in his heaven—
All's right with the world!