Dark days...

This time of year is always so strange to me. One the one hand, I know that Christmas, my favorite holiday, is just around the corner. On the other hand, it's dark and cold and days are long and seem harder than necessary. Maybe that's the point of the winter season. To help us remember how to relish the good times and earn our place in the sun. All I know is I can understand why bears hibernate.

I love the snow. We actually had a few soft flakes already and it was pretty, if not entirely welcomed by everyone. Maybe Halloween wasn't the best time for the first snow but that's how it can be in Wisconsin so who's complaining. Actually, everyone is complaining because that's what we do in Wisconsin. We are fiercely proud of our state but we will complain loudly about our weather. I guess experiencing all the seasons in one day is something to brag about. Not all areas of the country can say that!

So that dark days are here. The wind howls at night. Mornings start in grey haze with gusts that blow the last of the leaves down the street. A chill runs through me every morning before I get that first cup of Joe. And I hunker down to start making the insides brighter, lightening the dark with candles and sparkles and tinsel and wishes and that is why I love the anticipation that comes before Christmas. It's all a time to prepare for the long haul of winter and the closeness that being locked inside for months will bring.

We're going to need more cocoa and tea!

In the dark Novemeber...

Alex and I finished putting up our holiday lights. We live in an upper flat and the people downstairs don't put up lights so ours look pretty lonely. But they also look very beautiful as they light up the dark night.

Today I was home from work nursing a cold and soar throat. I feeling sick. I hate the achy tired feeling I have. But a couple of cups of good hot tea and a Christmas movie on the TV and I'm starting to feel better.

This morning a colleague called me to tell me that another colleague of ours had passed away over the weekend. He was someone I saw at the occasional meeting or two each month but still, the suddenness of his passing reminds me that we cannot take any single moment of our life for granted.

Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary. Hard to believe it's been one full year already. It went by so quickly. I think back and hope that I haven't taken a single moment for granted. And I vow to make each moment of the next year mean even more.

I get contemplative in the winter. The dark, quiet makes me think. Makes me wonder. And makes me long for change. I know that's winter's grand design. Without the dark quiet nights we would never appreciate the long, sun filled days of summer or the warm breezes of spring. Contrast in everything is good and right and needed.

I'm looking forward to the holidays this year with something akin to a child's wonder. I can feel it coming, the inner adrenaline already starting to take hold. I know they'll be good days...no matter what they hold for me.

Winter sky watch....

The weatherman is warning that we are going to get our first big winter storm sometime on Wednesday. Lake Michigan is still but waiting under a dark, dramatic sky for the first sign of the winter fury. So beautiful I just had to stop on my way home tonight and snap these photos.

That precarious place between autumn and winter...

I can always tell when winter is around the corner. It all starts with the sunrise and my leaving for work somehow timing exactly for a couple of weeks. Those are the most beautiful mornings where the sun peeks it's fiery head over the horizon of Lake Michigan. It makes me almost want to be up and out of the house that early.

But then it happens...

The morning comes when I am up and out before the sunrise and the day hasn't yawned it's first hello. Everything is dark and quiet. Sleepy buses are making their way, riderless, through town and the I'm nearly blinded by the garish lights of the local Gas 'n Go. The wind is a wee bit colder and the great lake is pitch dark midnight blue. Today there were clouds but on some days there will be the reflection of the waning moon. It's a sure sign that the dark season, winter, is coming.

I'm not like most of the people I know who lament summer's passing. I love summer, don't get me wrong! But I also find an immense amount of beauty in a Wisconsin winter. Yes, it's cold. Burning, hurting cold sometimes. But the crisp clean snow and fresh air are wonderful. The roar of the winter lake against the rocky shore is comforting. The glisten of new snow on over laden trees is so beautiful sometimes it doesn't look real! I love winter. Almost as much as summer.