Season of the Dreamer

I'm sure most of us notice the signs of the coming season - some more than others - depending on where we live. Here in California, it's the season that's just beginning to peak through the clouds and reveal its spindly branches. It's not the Christmas or Holiday season, though that is its shining feature. It's the season of Winter and all that it carries with it. I saw a sky like this one pictured, a few Winters ago, and it caused me to notice other beautiful new things all around me. More than the clouds taking shape in the sky, I saw that nature was starting to change its own decor the way we deck our halls. Around here one has to look for these changes a little more closely. It's subtle. It doesn't come pouring down from Heaven in snowy white splendor. 

This is a special time of year in which so many cultures celebrate light. How fitting. We miss those long bright days on the darkest ones. Now that we're almost upon that shortest and darkest day of the year, I think it's good to think about the metaphor we are presented with. (The sun is down by 5 o'clock now. So we have the time.) We experience this cycle of life in every stage: night and day, Summer and Winter, life and death, waking and sleeping. So here were are in the evening, knowing that morning is on the other side of the hill and Spring is around the corner. Let's light some candles, sing a lullaby or a Christmas carol, and watch the lights twinkle upon the trees. 

We must then remember that we're not the ones changing out these decorations, or making the sun go up or down. We are a special feature in this scenery, spectators to a majesty we cannot conceive, the objects of a creator's dream. It's just too beautiful and orderly for me to think of it any other way. Let's enjoy this season in humble wonder, as we are the dear children being tucked into bed. I hope that when we close our eyes, we can all rest assured that we know the one watching over us.

Dream of Winter

Rippled opaline sky,
burning with silver,
we are painted you and I,
by the One who dreamed of Winter.

Chiseled amethyst limbs,
brushed with sterling,
we are painted by His sky,
in the low color of seasons turning.

Dappled jet lane,
gilded with light,
we are glittered you and I,
by the One slowly dimming the light.

::

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."
- Albert Einstein

"Whoever wants to know something about me – as an artist which alone is significant – they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognize what I am and what I want."
- Gustav Klimt 

"Have you ever commanded the morning to appear
    and caused the dawn to rise in the east?
Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth,
    to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?
As the light approaches,
    the earth takes shape like clay pressed beneath a seal;
    it is robed in brilliant colors."
- God to Job, Job 12-14 

“Where does light come from,
    and where does darkness go?
Can you take each to its home?
    Do you know how to get there?
But of course you know all this!
For you were born before it was all created,
    and you are so very experienced!"
“Have you visited the storehouses of the snow
    or seen the storehouses of hail?
²³ (I have reserved them as weapons for the time of trouble,
    for the day of battle and war.)
²⁴ Where is the path to the source of light?
    Where is the home of the east wind?"
- God to Job, Job 19-24 

In peace I will lie down and sleep,
    for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe."
- Psalm 4:8