Another Winter’s Night
It is that time of the season when those evenings that give us the long nights of winter slowly makes its way toward the dawn. Over the last few months the nights have gotten longer and it slowly creeps into your awareness that things have once again changed. The first light of day slowly rising as the time approaches nine thirty in the morning, the horizon sun never climbing into the sky during its brief trip just above the mountaintops to drop into another long night of cold and darkness.
For some it is a difficult time . . . *S.A.D. as it is called who rely on special lights to keep their system in a normal state. (*Season Affective Disorder) They use special lights to keep the depression at bay. For me it may be a walk with my dog Levi or just going out onto the deck and soaking up the ambiance where the mountains meet the city here in
It’s cold tonight and the sodium vapor street lights bathe my little community in liquid amber. All is clothed in snow and ice from our recent snowfall now enveloped in a soft fog. My walk with Levi this night is keeping with the customs of the season, the air we both breathe is cold and raw. And yet, all I feel is peace and warmth, as my breath dissolves within the dank mist.
It is winter and all is quiet in the night. The earth serenely sleeps beneath these amber blankets. It is almost with a sense of shock that I discover that I, too, am at peace. Honestly, I almost didn’t recognize the feeling. It caught me by surprise. It has been so long . . . years, in fact . . . that I had forgotten how it felt to be at peace, to feel serene.
If there is such a thing as a landscape of the soul, this Alaskan winter night is that for me. I am most comfortable as a solitary being, wandering through the quiet fog dog playfully romping in the snow, safe amidst the snow and ice, this dream world bathed in a warm glow on a cold, dark winter night.
Ice
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