Last Day of Winter

Waxing Windswept Moon – Photo: L. Weikel

Welcome to the final day of winter 2021. The vernal equinox, or first day of spring, will officially arrive at 5:37 a.m. EDT on Saturday, March 20, 2021. Of course, that’s in the Northern Hemisphere. If you happen to be in the Southern Hemisphere, I’d say this is your last day of summer, and wish you happy first day of autumn – but you’re very nearly there already. (Consider it said anyway!)

It feels good to be putting this winter to bed. It gave us its all and it worked us out, too. I’m grateful for the abundance of snow we received. We spent most of the season dressed in a cloak of white. And the greatest part was how the snow barely had time to get all dirty and cinder-pocked before another storm would arrive to freshen our perspectives.

Today (the 19^th) is also, as many have already memorialized, the anniversary of when Pennsylvania acknowledged the pandemic for what it is and basically forced the commonwealth into power-save mode. I’m grateful we were one of the states that took the threat of the virus seriously fairly quickly.

It’s been a year. And it’s been a season.

A Doozy of a Week

Rounding out the pandemic year, and the winter season, this week has been strange and challenging. It felt oddly interminable. Every day I would wake up and struggle to grasp what day it was. People generally felt a little short-tempered, distant, or perhaps distracted.

Personally, I think the return of colder weather and the dismal overcast of the past few days (who among us enjoys taking a walk when it’s spitting rain and the temperature is hovering in the mid-30s?) took a toll on our ability to roll with the punches. Even though we knew last week – at least intellectually – that winter definitely would wrap its cold bony fingers around our shoulders at least one more time before more reliably spring-ish weather arrived, it still came as a punch to the gut to have to endure raw weather yet again.

And this time it wasn’t even accompanied by pretty white flakes.

Thank you winter, for providing us with so much cocoon time. I can’t wait to see what we all look like (creatively!) when we emerge from our chrysalises.