Winter's Retreat

  "Two minutes a day", I tell my son and daughter. "The days are getting longer by two minutes each day, a minute added to sunrise,a minute added to sunset." They feign interest, but I know if I continue to repeat the lesson multiple times a year, it will sink in. I continue with a detailed explanation on the planetary reasons behind this occurrence, knowing full well that they are taught all this in school, but I want them, no, need them, to picture the earth, it's tilted axis and all, hurtling around the sun, to understand why the days, weeks, years are as they are. To almost instinctively understand the seasonal cycles, the tides and weather, and how they shape all life on this planet!!!

  "Calm down!", my wife Karen  shouts at me whenever I reach a zealot like intensity over certain topics. But for me, the daily addition of light makes all the difference. It means the worst is almost over. It means that my all consuming passion of growing all things plant, slowed to a snails pace by winter's imposed dormancy, will be on for another year, the garden slowing coming to life.

And so will start another cycle. The earliest signs of spring will slowly build, keeping pace with winters retreat, never a cut and dry affair.