Light on Snow, and Yesterday

It is not balance you need but adaptability.

Erwin Raphael McManus

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Hello Friend,

Thanks for stopping in. Isn’t it wonderful to be walking on clear sidewalks?

We’re trying a new tea today. Persimmon Peach Ginger is what it’s called but it has all manner of things in it: apple pieces, candied papaya, red currants, rose petals … I’m not completely sold on it, especially in combination with the chocolate chip cookies I’ve baked, but it is interesting. Let me know what you think.

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Days ago, when there was much more snow on the ground, I was up while it was still dark outside. I looked out the window, over our backyard fence, over the alley, to the neighbour’s back yard. I often look out that window in the night or early morning, when the call of nature wakes me up. And sometimes, I linger there.

The window is always slightly open – even in winter – and no matter the season, the night sounds soothe me. Sometimes leaves gently whisper in the trees. In other seasons, slippery snow scuds across the shingles. Even the intermittent hum of the highway has its soothing effect at that hour. In those tranquil moments it seems as though nothing is wrong with the world, and maybe that’s why I stay there a little longer.

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I’ve come to learn, over countless nights like this, that our neighbours-over-the-alley are early risers. Except on Sundays, their home lights are on by 5:30 am. One early morning I was even looking out the window when 5:29 flipped to 5:30, and just at that moment an upstairs light went on.

Over other early morning window gazings, I’ve come to expect the light to be shining from the kitchen window by 6 am. I’ve never visited that home, but in my imagination it is the window over the kitchen sink.

Such was the case that early morning when I looked out. But this time, instead of fixing on the lights coming on in the house, my eyes were drawn to the square of warm light cast on the snow below the kitchen window. It glowed and I felt welcomed into it, as though invited to sit by a fire and rest. It was … completion, perfection.

A pinprick of a moment in eternal time that served to fill my soul.

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Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

R.S. Thomas

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There has been a lot of hype recently about it being a year since the first lockdown. I remember exactly where I was when we heard that the lockdown was imminent. The Cowboy and I were traveling home from having spent two weeks with family; a week with each set of grandkids. Shortly before that we’d enjoyed a two week vacation in the Caribbean. As we drove to our home province that day, I remember reflecting on the wonderful grace we’d been allowed: to have had our vacation and been able to see our beloved family before the world changed.

Now, I have become accustomed to waiting at the end of an aisle for another shopper to leave it before I enter. It has become the norm to cross the street to distance ourselves from our neighbours when walking, or to step away from someone when they come near. Do we even remember how to shake hands as we once did?

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They say a storm in summer clears the air and leaves the world peaceful. But there are some storms that can stir the world so about that when they have passed, things can never be set back quite as they were.

Laura Timmins
(Lark Rise to Candleford by Flora Thompson)

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Spring is just around the corner; another spring in pandemic. We made it through the winter. I’d say that’s an accomplishment. Well done!

It’s hard to know … how much longer. Though I don’t like it, I’ve become familiar with uncertainty. You too? Meanwhile, I’ve made new routines. I’ve learned things about myself: how I handle crisis, how I deal with time that’s been given me, how I appreciate the ones I love.

We can grieve over the things we lost in 2020 and wistfully remember what life was like pre-pandemic, but as Will Rogers once said, “Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today.”

Just like all the tomorrows of my yesterdays, I can never be absolutely certain what they will hold. What I do have is today. And I can take something from each today to strengthen my tomorrow.

Like warm light cast from a kitchen window in the dark of night.

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Thanks again for coming. As you listen to this gentle melody – An Early Sunrise by Randy Edelman – perhaps you will hear in it hope for your tomorrow.

See you next time, and stay safe out there.

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Feature Image by Pezibear from Pixabay