Spirit in the World

Winter came back at last this afternoon in fat flakes. Heavy enough to stay down and pile up. Wet enough to stick to everything. But I couldn’t look at it much today. As night came on, I couldn’t even think much, about anything. Didn’t know what I knew. Just wanted to shake off the cold and wet, come indoors. Though we haven’t had much winter this year, it was still a late winter night in my soul.

Then the three-year old boy next store came to see us, in a shaggy moonsuit. He gave us one full- faced smile before he went on ploughing thick frosting off all the birthday cakes on our porch rail.

I’m not going back out there tonight. And I still feel thick and slow. But I am glad, again, for winter.

Illustration from Jane Yolen's "Owl Moon"