February: whether weather

 It's one of those odd, in-between days when the morning begins at a decent warmth and then slides down from there.  Hours after dawn, still it's dark, too dark for a morning coming after a day of  impressive, spring-like sun.

That's what weather is like...changing at the whim of unseen forces and bringing change to us, too, in sometimes small, sometimes huge ways. Taking the temperature of today means I look out among the winter trees, hoping to see another clump of freshly bloomed daffodils brave among the dried leavings...but knowing that we might just as well take what comes into stride.

My cousin Barbara, talking about the house at the shore yesterday, reported that there had been a severe Nor'wester which wiped out a whole beach a few towns down from ours.  People talk about replenishing sand, she said, but why?  Nature is going to do what it wants.  It always has.  

shore news photo

That got us to thinking back over our childhoods, remembering each first visit to the shore in early spring, running out from the car to see how far or near the ocean had decided we could be from our bulkhead.  It was always different, and we took what we got, happy just to be where we were, whether we could jump way down off a high boardwalk, play scrunched under it, or simply step an inch or two off into the sand.

At whatever age, we are always reminded by such weather that the universe is a whole lot bigger than we are.  The illusion of control that fills some perspectives among us is an unfortunate pitfall of a limited imagination.  You know, Barbara said, in a way it's kind of comfortable knowing how small we are in the scheme of life...I like knowing that here I am in my own little world, watching the birds at the kitchen window, going about my life wherever it takes me.  Living comfortably with whether can be a virtue.  It's certainly what the birds do.

Bluebirds at feeder in snow, photograph by Barbara Jaeger

It's a good way to think about today, wondering whether the dark will lighten, wondering whether a sweater or a coat will suffice for a walk...and will it be a raincoat, after all?  Boots?  Rain isn't predicted until tomorrow, but the sky seems to be taking on a maudlin tone, and the wind's up.

Whatever, we just adjust to it...or, rather, whether, like so many universal forces, adjusts us to suit its tenor.