Changed vision
December 11th, 2022
I can gather all the news I need on the weather report. Soon, it will not only be a line from an absolutely great song but actually the true and the only way I will live my life. So, I get all the news I need on the weather report. And on a day like today, I don't even need to bother with that.
Snowfall started this morning, and it will last for days. It was predicted and expected and welcomed and needed and dreaded — depending on a person and his/hers attitude. For me, all the adjectives listed above count and surprisingly work well for all different parts of my psyche.
I was out for a couple of hours this morning. I didn't have to, but the changed weather was a challenge and an opportunity to see the world in a way I haven't since last winter. And I have already forgotten about the last winter. I forget a lot of things, sometimes even on purpose.
I saw an old woman walking in the snow this morning. She had shabby clothes, no hat — only a flimsy hood on a flimsy jacket. And no gloves. She hurried along the sidewalk carrying a bunch of old plastic bags. Fresh snow can cover a lot of things, except individual tragedies.
The snowflakes today don't even fall straight to the ground, as would be expected. A quick look around told me that they mostly move sideways, one second from the left, the next second from the right, and then even they whirl upwards before settling somewhere.
All the sounds are muffled. I don't hear any people around, no ice scrapers at work trying to free the cars. And no car sounds as well. No one needs to be outside today. And yet, I see some figures — mostly in dark clothes — moving in silence, huddled against the elements.
I sit in silence at my desk, I already had my coffee and finished all the duties for today. I enjoy this moment of reflection. Especially because I don't think about the future, no thoughts of that kind are present anywhere in my mind. And that is not even any of my conscious doing.
I think about the present and about this particular moment I experience right now. I feel lucky that I can afford this time — without bother and worries — just to see myself at the moment in time. A moment that will be forgotten soon, and the next winter will be a new revelation.
