Morning. I awake in my la-z-boy chair. (As usual, I’d spent the last third of the night there.) Slowly I squint with one eye — just enough to see the digital clock. Isn’t the world usually brighter by now? I open the eye. And then the other. There is a strangely soft light this morning. I look out the window.

Like a bride at her wedding, this morning is garbed in white. A dress of new snow covers the ground, A gauzy veil of white fog hides the glow on the face of the newly risen sun and white fluffy clouds decorate the western sky.

Moments later, I exit the garage with food and water for the cats. (Critters eat first.) Corporal runs to greet me. Careful how I step. (There is ice on the driveway beneath a thin sheet of snow.) Corporal rubs against my leg. I bend and give her some skritches behind her ears. She loves that and tells me so with a contented purr. Soon all the cats are fed and petted. Except Pepe who keeps his distance.

I walk around the house to the nearly empty bird feeder. The newly fallen snow crunches beneath my boots. It’s a pleasing sound.

Diamonds of rime encrust the branches of the crab apple trees reflecting and refracting the rays of the early sun and adding glints of luster to the scene. Sparkling diamonds everywhere.

High, very high, in the deep blue of the eastern sky a jumbo jet races westward. It is the tip of a white-shafted spear. As it passes directly overhead and continues, in the morning stillness I hear the first sound of its approach.

The jet-tipped silver spear races on, westward until it plunges deep into the heart of a cloud bank. It leaves behind only the slowly dissipating evidence of its passing.

Awareness returns. How long have I stood here?

Hey, I’m hungry! Let’s go eat.

On Thursday, Sylvia and I met our older son, Bryant, for lunch. It was another of the days that are so typical of winter in West Michigan. The skies were lead gray. Snow was falling, and it was bone-chilling cold!

We used to meet in a pizzeria and sandwich shop, but it was never very comfortable and it was a bit dark. Not a place in which you would want to sit on a dreary, snowy, winter day! Lately, we’ve been meeting at a Steak & Shake, where there is lot of light and it is always comfortable.

I had this conversation with the waitress:

W: How are you folks today?

Me: Happy.

W (not pausing to hear my reply): I don’t know how anyone could be happy on a gloomy day like this . . . Huh? . . .

Me: It’s a choice I make. Every day.

W: Uh . . . Yeah, I guess you’re right. What would you like today?

I can’t tell you how many times that conversation (or it’s first cousins) have taken place. I get some interesting responses. You might try it for yourself.

I thought again of Ida’s posting at Losing Myself on Wednesday. She talked about SAD (seasonal affective disorder). If you get the winter blues, you ought to check it out.

Another source for help is CarePages. Yes, I know. That site is for folks with bad diseases and allows us to follow the progression of their maladies. I first went there to follow the story of a youngster with heart problems. Since then, I’ve followed others — youngsters and adults.

CarePages does more than that. They also offer help to the (mostly) healthy. They have a good article on five ways to deal with the winter blues. Check it out here. See — there are advantages to getting older. 🙂

I hope you don’t have a SAD problem.