Echos of Seasons, and Home, Safe Home

What a day... it was like three of the years four seasons in twelve hours.

The morning, today, was beautiful.  It was filled with warm sunbeams and light breezes.  It was like spring in November.  I did some "spring" cleaning, and chores that have waited too long already.  We managed to get the Christmas lights up (for the first time in three years!).   I am grateful for our spring morning in November.

By early afternoon, the autumn reminder rang loud.  I could see the clouds in the sky moving in, grey and luminous.  They looked heavy, and daunting.  It was a sky of worry, tumultuous and cool.  The breeze shifted into a wind.  It's bite begged for more than a sweater, and I was grateful to welcome a warm afternoon inside with a mug filled with apple cider and a good book.  There was time to relax as the winds of change swept away the spring, then the fall.  Soon it was raining, then slushing... then it was here.

Late afternoon welcomed winter and it's huge snowflakes.  The sky was white and relentless.  For hours, the dense blanket covered the Earth, tucking her in, promising wishes and dreams, and newness to come.  It was peaceful to sit in my chair and watch out the window, watching the snowflakes kiss the shining Christmas lights on the eaves, hanging on as long as they could before falling to the Earth.  It was quiet and magical...until a siren split the air.

I could hear the screaming of fire trucks, and ambulances.  My husband had left, returning his son home after the weekend, and I knew he was out on the highway.  Another crack in the air and a rescue truck blared by into the blizzard.  My heart was pounding, I was instantly panic stricken.  Nightmares flooded my head, and in a hereditary habit, I started chewing my fingers, scrambling for my phone.  I could hear the path of the sirens... I know that path...

Let me tell you, there are no words of gratitude measureable to describe the lights of a truck pulling into my driveway.  And that, today, in the seasons of seasons, wins the prize.  I am grateful for my love returning home, safe home.  I will forgive Mother Nature for her winter temper tantrum in the same breath of thanking her for the other two seasons today.

A day of gifts, and I am still counting my blessings.