"Snow: / years of anger following / hours that float idly down - / the blizzard / drifts its weight / deeper and deeper for three days / or sixty years, eh? Then / the sun! a clutter of / yellow and blue flakes - / Hairy looking trees stand out / in long alleys / over a wild solitude. / The man turns and there - / his solitary track stretched out / upon the world."
- "Blizzard" by William Carlos Williams
"What we call the beginning is often the end / And to make an end is to make a beginning. / The end is where we start from..."
- From "Little Gidding" by T.S. Eliot
In this, the winter of the world's discontent, we rise on cold mornings and greet the headlines of the fresh administration with either relief or trepidation, depending on our news sources and political orientations. For those eighty million of us who voted for Biden, Harris and their diverse cabinet, the ending of the Trump era signifies the beginning of hope, a starting place for progress. Our nights are filled with more peaceful dreams, our dreams themselves more resonant with possibility.
And yet the cold winter wind still bites, as I was reminded on the pool deck today at 6am. My watch said 23 degrees and the billows of steam rising off the chlorinated water put me in mind of a giant cauldron, over which I might cast a spell of my liking. Surely if I had been able to wield any magic* I would have multiplied all available vaccines and wished into being a flawless delivery mechanism for their protection.
The billows of steam passed me by, offering a whisper of warmth as they flew but no magic. I cast salt on the ground to prevent the concrete from freezing under my boots and watched my swimmers in their solitary tracks up and down the lanes. What's next? whispered the wind, and my fingers slowly froze around the empty coffee mug. Our story is yet unwritten, it's plot-points dependent on the caution and restraint we exercise this winter, and the bold action we plan for the warmer, sunnier months to come.
*Yes, I'm still re-reading the Deborah Harkness trilogy.
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