HANG ON

Once in a while in the Pacific Northwest there is a day in December or January after a particularly long stretch of nasty weather that reminds me why I love the place where I was born. 

One morning I wake up and notice the rain has let up for a while and as the dawn breaks a slight breeze comes up to push away the layer of clouds that has been pressing down for days, or even weeks.

As they break up, patches of blue peek out and grow larger so that by noon the sky is so blue, the air so bright and clear, that the snow, dazzling off the mountains, almost hurts my eyes and I want to weep just from the sheer magnificence of it all. 

The wind ruffles my hair and makes me hold my coat closed a little tighter against the chill...and yet... there is a hint of something, maybe not the touch of warmth sometimes felt in March that whispers of warmer days ahead  but a sense or maybe a smell that says "not yet but hang on to the beauty of this day when you get discouraged by the rain and snow and fog and gloom in the weeks ahead.  Hang on to the memories of a memory that spring will come again like it always does...

but for now...AT THE END OF THE DAY... button up because here we go again".  Another winter storm is blowing in from the ocean."