Friday, February 1, 2013

Alive in the Arctic




Blustery, insistent Old Man Winter invited his skilled elf, Jack Frost, to paint lavish murals on our porch windows today with wide, silvery brush strokes. As a result, Jack’s metallic-looking artistry covers every inch of glass with stunning, decorative silverplate.  

Although the lake’s crystal lid thawed several days ago, the Old Man seems playfully, if not seriously, intent on refreezing it.  Aggressive waves have been rocking frozen chunks and cubes like rough gems for hours, growing mini glaciers ever larger before chewing and crushing them against the seawall with forceful, gritty sloshing and grinding.  

Nuthatches, chickadees, and tufted titmice repeatedly empty our tube of sunflower seeds in record time.  A tenacious woodpecker drills ice-encrusted suet. Snow-dusted squirrels rummage through seed spillage on the ground, their fur billowing wild in response to gusty little twisters.

When we finally muster courage to brave the elements - the driveway being in desperate need of shoveling - white powder crunches dry and lifeless beneath our super-insulated moon boots.  Within a few minutes, my gloved fingers sting cold to the point of pain, and frozen knives sear my lungs. Snow-magnified sunlight blinds me: lazars on every side.

And yet, while squinting and stomping and blowing warm air down the cuffs of my gloves, I’m surprised by subliminal warmth, a vibrant, vigorous pulsing deep inside: mysterious, supernal life overriding temporal challenge.  

Life.  Current reality shedding hope on eternal destiny.






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