it is cold out again. the snow melted the last few days,
i could see the grass. soggy and ruined by the winter but still there and i wanted so badly for it to be time for the warm sun and for the green and the life.. it is only february, though, and i am
searching for warmer thoughts. found this one, from some time before the cold..
it is windy and warm enough,
considering the season. some leaves have fallen and my dad and i are out for a walk around the yard. my sister's little one awkwardly walking along beside us, his small feet clambering over the gravel as if the larger stones are boulders and he is off balance always, little fingers reaching for my hand -
just in case.
my dad is the sort of person who sees things most people miss - in the trees, on the ground.
hears things you wouldn't think to listen for. sometimes in the warmer weather when time and his health allow, we take long walks. he often chides me because
i can't ever seem to walk as quietly as he can. the twigs snap and the leaves crunch beneath my feet while he somehow misses them all with his mostly silent steps. he points out creatures amidst the trees, various tracks, nests in obscure locations. occasionally there is a sudden stop and i am hushed, he points - there is a deer a fair distance away, alerted to our presence but not yet startled enough to flee.
this particular day, in the yard - the sky is a strange greyish orange - a late
afternoon rain on its way. my nephew is talking in his little words, in love with every stone he sees. looking for little frogs, although he refuses to get too close to them. dad looks off for a moment and then pauses, hushes us both and kneels beside the little one.
whispers now,
do you hear that? "yeah i can hear it grumpa"
that's the rain comin'.. and i can hear it now, too. falling in sheets, it is visible a few miles away.
little words, quiet like his grandpa, "rain gonna come down soon". yes it is, little one. and we slow-walk back to the house with the droplets on our heels.