Today is January 13, amazingly sunny. Mid-fiftes, Fahrenheit. I had all the blinds up to let in the light, I left the back door open for the dogs to wander in and out for a bit. I joined friends for a doggie play date get-together at the super-secret dog park (elementary school) that nobody (everybody) knows about. Shadows were long, there was an air-brushed, idyllic quality to the afternoon. There were families together, playing. Kids shared a Nerf soccer ball with Jackson, and he acted like the perfect collie, bounding majestically with hair flowing, bringing the ball back time and time again (until Prieta would come along and steal it because BALL!) Poppy wandered the field and play area, prancing with her short, bow-legged, wide-stanced gait, sniffing butts and then peeing, scratching forcefully at the grass afterwards like, YAAASSS, TAKE THAT, BITCHES!!
It felt like spring.
But this is the great northwest, and Mother Nature is kind of unpredictable this time of year, teasing us with a day like today followed by a day of torrential downpours or just unrelenting grey. And just as soon as we get tricked into doing yard work or planting seeds, mother nature will sucker-punch us with a freeze.
Even still, I love it.
I’ve been on this planet 48 years. In one month– one day less than a month, in point of fact!– I will have been on this earth 49 years. That’s almost 50 years, for those of you who are less mathematically inclined. And the older I get, the more I appreciate this time of year. There was a poem I had to read in an undergrad lit class, and I don’t remember who wrote it or the gist of the poem but one concept pops into my mind whenever this type of day comes around- something about a pregnant time of spring, and it alludes to that pre-spring moment when the world is dark and dormant but there are signs that a great Awakening will occur. Soon buds will burst like popcorn kernels at high heat, and mother nature will take her watercolor paintbrush and start dotting trees with a green hue.
Its a magical time full of promise and beauty, and even when the sun is setting early, the sky has a golden-pink optimism that speaks of beginnings.
Change is on the horizon. And even before The Change happens, there’s beauty, so much beauty. And tired pups.
