Tracks in the snow

The day began early, and sweetly. I was up early with a hankering for a piece of music I couldn't quite place. But, I found it among the Christmas CDs: Loreena McKennitt's To Drive the Cold Winter Away. I dozed in a chair as the day's light rose, watching some of sung words actually happen. Just outside the windows across the back of the house, indeed, "The naked trees loom spectrally/Into the dim white sky."

I'm going to keep this post short. Today was a better than yesterday, whatever that means. Not as heavy-hearted. More philosophical about the brittle drear brought on by the wintry weather.

Tal and I ventured out into the crunchy snow during the middle of the afternoon to explore a bit, to shovel the ice off the sidewalk outside the garage door, to see if the mail and/or the newspaper had been delivered (yes, the to paper, no, to the mail).

Before going back in the house to warm up I had a wonderful, even reassuring, encounter that soothed my spirits, finishing what Loreena McKennitt's voice had started hours before. My joy at that sight shifted my perspective in a most welcome way.

My favorite bird has passed this way:
great blue heron tracks in the snow alongside the pond.