Monday, December 1, 2008

Happy December!

Perhaps we shouldn't need a calendar to celebrate a fresh start, just as we shouldn't need a holiday to remember to give thanks, but there's something inherently delightful about starting a new month -- every new month, not just every new year.

Some months are happier to begin than others, though. The first day of November feels heavy, grey, and bleak, trees and animals finally succumb to the cold, prepare to hibernate. January knows it can never live up to its expectations, it becomes too involved, too far into the season, snow already accumulating in salty piles of slush by the side of the road. But December! What balance, December! It's the month for swishing angels, lacing up ice skates, stacking the wood-pile, sipping hot chocolate, frosting cut-out cookies, rearranging the N-O-E-L blocks so that they spell L-E-O-N, decembering!

This month always holds such promise. This first morning is like standing out at the edge of a snowy field, ready to inscribe footsteps across an expanse of pure whiteness.

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