Hello Darkness...

All of my life I have been very aware of the natural world around me, flora, fauna, seasons, weather. And it effects me in a very deep, visceral way. Even in the city.

This is the time of year when the sun goes to it's rest earlier and earlier each evening. Arising later and later each day. There are more days of gray, damp, chilly air that make one envy those mammals who, even now, may be hibernating in their cozy dens, or long for a roaring fire to chase away the early darkness.

Somehow it seems that time speeds up; that we rush headlong toward the winter solstice, that time of death and rebirth. Each day flying by faster and faster, less and less sunlight, less warmth, like sand running out of the proverbial hourglass.

Anticipation makes the return to life seem endless. Through those dark days of the first two and a half months of the new year each day becomes a month and each month a year. Every second of daylight gained seeming hard won.

And I, who so desperately need the sun, find myself waking at first light to open the curtains wide and soak up every drop. Keeping them open late to watch the last fading blush of day leave the sky, so as to lose not one precious second of the day and it's gift.