Wait For It

In East Greenwich, RI, last Saturday night, we warmed our backsides against the earth-friendly burn of enviro-logs crinkling in the copper fire bowl on John and Deb Walsh's patio. As John and Brian conferred over the state of the globe, Deb and I took note of leafless maples, birch, and willow in her backyard. She said, "Sometimes I sit up in the cupola (it's a seaside town), waiting. I look out at all this loss, this emptiness, and I know something's coming. I never know what, of course. Just knowing something is coming is what makes this so beautiful." I wanted to ask if she'd read my last posting of similar theme, but I didn't want to retreat to the literal too quickly. So without speaking, for a few moments we waited together. It was uncharacteristically balmy for a December night. The radiating bowl was enough to warm our chilled parts. The moon lit the sky with a pastel teal that reminded me of the northern lights I once saw in Denali, Alaska. The twigs and twisted barren branches we admired cast a filigree of shadows that levitated lively over the matted patches of grass and frozen dirt. Ordinary objects ordinarily overlooked commanded the landscape: a red wooden storage shed placed catercorner on the grounds, the weathered wooden fence, the telephone wires segmenting the sky scape, the row of rectangular houses lined up like yellowed dominoes. I was taking it all in, this mild expression of the season. I knew the real thing, the abominable part I remembered loving as a kid and hating as a young adult was just days away. We were heading back to Marin in two days. Turns out, we escaped a blizzard by mere hours.

It's easy to take in the beauty in the spareness of the season back in the temperate Bay Area; all you need is an extra layer and a fashionable scarf. It's a short wait, though, before the magnolias and acacias start to bloom. But in New England and other regions where real winter happens and happens and happens, they take it like a beating and sport the wear and tear like prizefighters. When it's over, they will tell you it was worth the wait. And not just for what comes next.