We have had some days
of mild weather. This reminds me of the warmth of our El Nino winter last year. The brutal cold spell in January this winter is gone and such cold cannot return so long and deep.
There is blue sky somewhere today, but it is not here. Greyness overhead. A little crisper than yesterday. Ice. A crunch to the surface of the snow.
It is remarkable how the snow moves away from the dark trunks of trees in every yard. A wide circle of grass shows around the base of most trees. Is the warmth that the trees soak up these days enough to move the snow back? Apparently. I have not noticed this phenomenon before.
Geese are set down against a field of white again this morning - a study in black and white and grey. I want to disappear into the landscape today, I want to flow into it, be a small landmark on it, a small furry creature moving across it. I want to be crow, looking for warmth, looking for home. Instead I have to head to work.
In Ripon, crow shows us how to tip onto one wing, wheel like a skidmark in the sky. I show us how to do our duty and I go to work.
I sometimes think that having kids made me a better employee. The days I might stay home for a "mental health day" the kids say "Oh mom, you don't have a fever, so you have to go to work."
:)
I like your idea of duty and like also thinking of you wishing you could be something else. Nice piece.
Posted by: susurra | February 03, 2005 at 01:34 PM
Dear blogger who wants to write one good sentence every day: can you take a day off when your good sentence is a great sentence? That last paragraph...
Now you're making skidmarks in the sky. I haven't been so moved by a bird on a page since Hopkins.
Posted by: Peter | February 03, 2005 at 07:37 PM
Susurra - thanks for the good word. I'm not sure this sense of duty is always such a good thing. Sometimes it feels like an awfully heavy sack of potatoes. Sometimes, don't you wish, sometimes the kids would say: "Hey, you're a great mom. Stay home today if you feel like it. We won't tell anybody." Nah, won't happen....
Posted by: Tom Montag | February 03, 2005 at 08:12 PM
Peter - thanks for the good word, too. No, I'm afraid the "Dear Blogger" just kept right on going, nonstop, for almost five years. You'll have to endure a lot more searching for a good sentence before we're done. Sorry. :)
Posted by: Tom Montag | February 03, 2005 at 08:14 PM