A beautiful early Winters day….

For those of you who are regular readers you may be developing the impression that I don’t have much time for pleasantness and niceness. I am aware that I do tend to rant a bit, or burble on about whatever random nonsense is in my head at the time, so just for a change I thought I would ramble on about something a bit lighter. From my office window I can see down the road to a beautiful Georgian church square still surrounded with the Georgian townhouses that were originally built with it. The low Winter sun is bright in a clear blue sky and is bathing the church in glory, highlighting the magnificent stained glass windows. I can only image the rainbow of colours within the church created by the sunlight streaming through those windows but I imagine it to be fabulous.

This is one of my favourite times of year for many reasons. I love the cold, crisp morning, the taste and smell of fresh snowfall, although we haven’t had that particular treat yet, the sounds of the hardier birds still flitting about the place but probably most of all the wonderful artistic quality of the light. On those days when the skies clear the low transit of the sun keeps the light streaming at an angle that lends a sharpness to everything it touches. The stonework of the building opposite gleams, and even the mundane red brickwork is lent a special aesthetic by the rays and the spectrum of the light as it is forced to arrive through more atmosphere than the summer sun.

I’m constantly surprised that I don’t see more people taking a moment to pause in their busy day to just enjoy the sights and sounds of a beautiful Winters day. For me there is something deeply special about it, but I guess it takes all sorts. I have never been one for the more obvious heat and light of Summer, finding it too close and hot, but this afternoon, sitting in the window, watching the World go by, seeing the light shift as the sun tracks across the sky I can easily believe that all is right with the World, even if only in this moment, and this mind. It gladdens my heart and lifts my spirits and for a short while the World becomes bearable.

For me, taking the time to really appreciate these moments is crucial as it gives me a high point to refer back to in the darker days. To know that I can feel and experience beauty reminds me that I am human, that I part of the great, complex, ever changing pattern of life on this planet, and that there is always something to savour, something to enjoy, even when it feels like there is nothing left that is worthwhile.

I love Winter, and I love that I can find beauty in something so simply complex as the play of light on the wall of a building and through the branches of a tree. Today it is good to be alive…..