A Shaft of Light

A Shaft of Light

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Does it Snow in Heaven?

I wonder - does it snow in Heaven? I hope so. Is there anything more lovely than falling snow? White puffs of snow, like fresh picked cotton, drifting through the trees . . .  carpeting fields in white satin; waiting for tomorrow's sunshine to set it on fire, to lift it's sparkle, to reflect the sky.

Having said that, I can almost feel the volley of hard-packed snow balls headed my way - launched by friends and foe alike, who, like me, are currently snowbound.

'Is she nuts?' I hear. (Grinding your teeth doesn't help, by the way. It shortens them. Lopsidedly.)

Maybe I am nuts. Especially when I consider the fact that, like you, I may not be able to get out of my driveway until the Lilacs bloom.

Miss Kitty is not amused. Especially since I aired the picture of her makeshift bathroom on face book. Crass, Ginny. Crass. And unfeeling. Politically incorrect. Apparently, when she decided to scrape a place in the snow on my lower deck, her paws got cold, her nose froze and her behind accidently touched the snow.

I don't get it. Your ancestors were Norwegian Forest cats, my dear Miss Kitty. You've got tufts of fur between your toes and around your pads, and a downy undercoat to keep you warm . . . your ears are tufted inside and out and you've got a fur coat that some people around here would kill for. Don't look at me like that . . . And why don't you use your litter box?

Don't you get it? I'm a Norwegian Forest cat! We prefer the outdoors.

Yup. "Have a cookie, Pussy Cat."

Speaking of cookies - that makes me think of hot chocolate . . . Now, there's a thought. And marshmallows. Hmmm. What else is there to do on a snowy day? Bake cookies? June Cleaver would. I'll get a roll of Pillsbury cookie dough out of the freezer. Come to think of it, I could combine all of the above (substituting the cookie dough with a Duncan Hinds cake mix) and mix up a chocolate marshmallow cream cake. Hmm. Snowbound is okay.
It holds all kinds of possibilities.  Afterall, we all need an extra layer of fat to combat the icy cold. Don't we? We'll go to Zumba when the sun comes out.

But back to my original thought - I think they do have snow in Heaven. A lot of people love the snow. Skiers, snow boarders, Apres skiers . . .  Pandas and  Labradors. Snow bunnies. A Heaven with no snow? Never.

So, relax. It'll stop snowing when it's time for it to stop. In the meantime, we'll think of spring and sip hot chocolate. And, look on the bright side -  if this icy business goes on too long, we can break out the caramel whisky eggnog. Cheers, everyone!


Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Full Leo Moon

Last night, I watched the full moon rising, it's light, liquid and platinum, filtering through the trees, silvering the brown grass of winter, casting it's spell on the night.

I've heard that if you want to find joy, focus on the things you love. So, early this morning, long before it was light, I poured my first cup of coffee, opened my bedroom shutters, went back to bed, and by the light of a tangerine candle I watched the moon set.

It descended slowly, just as it had risen, through the bare, black limbs of the trees, making them shimmer with an illusion of warmth in the icy morning. Moonlight beamed down on my cove, sending it's sparkle across the sheet of ice that covered the water from shore to shore, it's light, brushing the frozen ripples of its surface, inking in the cracks, delineating the swirls created by the ebb and flow of the water's currents. A ghostly paintbrush moving black and silver paint across my world.

My world, and the world that belongs to all of us. I thought of friends and family, hundreds and thousands of miles away, who share this moon with me; who may be watching it's splendor, high in the sky, or sinking in a far away early morning somewhere. From every hemisphere. And, in this moment of peaceful beauty, in the glow of my tangerine candle, I fall in love with the world and everyone in it.

When I was young, I would lie awake at night and sometimes, on the outskirts of the city, I could hear the distant roar of lion. Perhaps a full-bodied black-maned cat - filling the night with its rumble. And I wonder if perhaps on those nights, like tonight, here in Virginia, there was a full Leo moon lighting the pale grasslands plains he roamed.

I think of pilots, 30,000 feet above the world, criss-crossing the atmosphere with the light of this moon glancing off silver wings, and feeling its beauty. I think of sailors on the night time watch, perhaps thinking of ancient mariner's who travelled these same waterways, guided by the lights of the firmament, I think of a Bedouin traveler, deep in the desert, smoking outside his tent, watching the sharp silhouette of his camels in the moon light, and I am in awe of the power of the Universe and its ability to bring us all together in its magnificence.

I hope its a good and peaceful day for you, my friends, and everyone everywhere. And tonight, I hope you feel that magnificence as the moon comes up, aligning with Jupiter and calming Uranus. It's bound to be a perfect night.