Blue sky & bare branches

Photo is property of Ariana Salvo. May not be reproduced without permission.

I woke up this morning to the sun shining in through my curtains. After getting breakfast and taking care of a few things I pushed the screen door open and wandered out onto the back porch, taking a seat on the cool cement stairs. The sun was just wrapping itself over the house, falling in a warm strip across my legs and bare feet. Looking up, I noticed that the Japanese maple that had been so covered in deep plum red leaves yesterday were mostly gone, shaken free by the wind that blew and blew through the city yesterday leaving a thick deep red carpet upon the damp grass. A few lone leaves still clung to the bare braches, the sun shining through them, lighting them up--a ruby constellation quivering among the topmost branches. Sitting there with my feel being warmed by the sun, I looked up at the bright blue sky -- so blue it made me squint my eyes, and listened the the chirp and chatter of birds and squirrels, the lazy buzzing of a fly fortunate to live in a climate where flies are still alive at this time of year, and the sandpapery caws of a group of crows above. I sat and wrote in my journal and felt the seasonal shift in my body and some internal movement that I cannot quite lay my finger on but felt like I was standing on the edge of a cliff about to take flight (up, not down!!) There is something healing and comforting and somehow magical about winter sunlight, you know?

It is evening now. The afternoon was golden--the crystal prism that I have hanging in the window above my desk sent fragments of rainbows dancing across my desk, over my bed and up the wall. It was a long, quite afternoon. I finished reading Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, and did some writing, and now the light has that watery lavender-bluish wash to it that comes right before darkness evening releases its hold on the light and the stars slowly become visible against the blackness of the night.

Tomorrow afternoon my mother and I are planning a trip to San Francisco for tea at Samovar followed by an evening performance of flamenco in a local theatre. I am still a bit under the weather from being sick the last week, so am hoping I am feeling better when I wake up tomorrow morning as I have really been looking forward to this trip.

And you friends? What do you have planned for this first weekend in December?