The Melting World

The sun has just come out of the clouds after a long, long hiatus. While snow has a brightness that is in some ways as blinding and as brilliant as the sun’s, ultimately living things have a bigger need for the sun and its power. The appearance of the sunlight brings the end to a somber song and a smile forms more easily.

I had been missing the sun without realizing it! How much better the world looks when a patch of blue sky appears and the sun opens its cyclop eye. Some might say the sun brings an illusion of hope, but I think the hope is no illusion. The sun does transform the world and gives it life, especially after reappearing from an extended holiday. The darkness heals us, and the light gives us the power to grow more.

At night I didn’t sleep well. Even with three blankets I shivered and I hated to move from the one spot I had semi-heated. Since yesterday the air has turned the corner toward that the type of cold that eats your flesh and stops the blood from pulsing through extremities.

As I shoveled snow this morning, my fingers disappeared at the tips first and then became shadows in the final space beneath the knuckles. I cannot enjoy shoveling as much because I love these hands and wish they would stay with me and help me with the work. I wonder if all the freezing my body has experienced–growing up in Minnesota and now again here in Asahikawa–will allow my flesh to stay fresh longer? How many times will I freeze before I become inedible and freeze-dried?

Never mind, the sun is here! It paints the side of the school building into a perfect white triangle of light. I can almost see the a, b,c written at each side. I am glad I don’t know what the given value is for any side. I don’t want to be logical today or to decipher a geometrical puzzle. I just want to face the sun, close my eyes, and accept the offering.