I am in cold, wet Derby at this moment, on a very brief visit to see my children. I woke up early this morning, and was pleasantly surprised to find a tiny sprinkling of snow covering the shed roof and garden bench. As I sit here now with my 8.00am coffee, looking out of the window at the soggy, bedraggled garden, the sleety rain washing away the snow and turning the day into an icon of the typical English November, I am struck by two surprising observations.
Firstly, on both my mornings here, I have found myself awake and wanting to get up early, even before sunrise, even though there were no chicken chores driving me on, and even though I had absolutely no reason in the world to get out of bed before midday. I woke up with a feeling of being glad to be alive, and wanted to get up immediately to greet the new day and whatever it would bring my way. There is a palpable sense of possibility hanging in the air that I breathe these days.
Secondly, the sight of the white dusting on the garden in the morning gloom made my heart leap, ever so slightly, like a nostalgic echo of those moments in childhood when the first snow of the year heralded the onset of cold, winter play-times and the flourescent-lit approach of Christmas. Even as the sleet transforms into oh-so-uneventful English rain, dropping from the leaden sky like old-fashioned wallpaper in a house of memories, I feel inexpicably joyful and at ease.
So this is how my day has started, and I am happy. I have nothing else to say about it. I just wanted to share the moment.
Thanks for that mate…. perhaps next time when I’m standing in the sleet, rain and freezing cold wind waiting for a train to take me to another days miserable toil, I’ll remember to think like you do !!!! Not! 😉 xx
Ah, Colin. Dear, sweet-natured Colin. You’re such a miserable git!! 😉
It must be the miserable toil that’s grinding you down.