“In the cold and snow of Winter, there’s a Spring that waits to be; unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.”

Winter means waiting: waiting for the snow and ice to melt, the grass to green up, the sun to share more of its warmth. Deeper still is the waiting for news of progress on a project, for plans to come to fruition, or for winter’s slump to dissolve.

I watch the birds at the feeders: chickadees, cardinals, sparrows and a woodpecker visited yesterday, adding their carefree landings onto limbs, railings and fence posts. When the wind chill is in single digits, I wonder how they can survive. Even their birdseed feeder is sporting new icicles like fangs. Not to be deterred, our winged friends find ways around them.

A friend recently posted that we have only 30 more days until we spring our clocks forward. Whenever we do get an extra hour of daylight, it’s always a welcome reprieve from the dusk-comes-too-early we’ve been experiencing since November.

This week’s clear weather has given subtle gifts: moonlight is at its fullest this mid-February. Nighttime has cast an ethereal glow onto our back deck for several nights now, and even in my kitchen, without any lights turned on, my counters nearest the window have been lit from above like they had a spotlight on them.

It’s as if the Director has said, “Action.” But it’s not a film showing on some screen. It’s the real life of winter in West Virginia. We can all hope for brighter days as the lengthening daylight improves our mood as we wait.

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