Unseasonable

It was 60* today! In January, in Wisconsin! That means go outside. Take a long walk.

Breathing is easy when it's that warm and there is so much moisture in the air. It's very soothing. Mostly when I step out the door this time of year my muscles compact preparing for a shock of cold. But today I found I was walking with my arms at my sides, jacket unzipped. Soon I regretted the burden of my hat and scarf.

When I got to the river I was rewarded with a stark white, ethereal fog hovering over the water like clouds come to Earth, sheets of ice breaking and melting on the surface. It was gorgeous. When I see things like that I like to turn my brain off and imagine what I might see if I had never heard of "evaporation." Spirits? Smoke? Something all-together otherworldly?

My park has a waterfall.( I visit every year to watch the salmon jump.Yeah, it's pretty awesome.) The waterfall was crusted with ice and was an evaporation/spirit-making machine! My waterfall has given me an appreciation of the sound of rushing water. A forceful yet undeniably calming sound. I'd so like to nap to that sound! I thought of recording it on my phone but decided against it. I knew a recording couldn't ever do it justice.

The smell today was also pretty great! Earthy, woodsy smells (my favorite!) and sweet, light, pollen-y smells and of course the encompassing smell of damp.

On the way home I walked by a house with an ambulance in the driveway. Someone was being brought home, wheeled inside the house on a gurnee.

I stuck my hands inside my pockets. It started to rain in big, cold drops and I zipped my coat and walked an extra buncha blocks completely out of my way, because I could. Because it was 60* in January and these things need to be celebrated. Because it isn't my time to be bedridden and housebound.

I said my own quiet prayer to the spirit of the river cloud, the sound of rushing waters, and the earthen smell of damp.