lions and lambs

Early morning run. The morning is so beautiful. Just being outside, breathing ocean air, seeing the sun rise over the water and cast the bay in that glowing orange net that dissolves after a few minutes...this edge of the continent is breathtaking. Makes me wonder why there are not more sets of eyes out here prowling about.

It's strange, this year. The first day of spring arrives like a sheep. The lamb came this month, after the lion in February (a two-day snow storm).  So the sun is out, people are working in their yards, wearing shorts, riding bikes...and the trees are bare. The sun cuts bright and clear through empty branches and casts nothing but skin-and-bone shadows. That's the strange part.

Where are the flowers? Where are the sprouts, the buds? I did see crocuses in someone's yard. But the place still stinks of lion's breath. Snow drifts in shadows and in dark spots in dirty parking lots. Still there.

We play outside while we can, we dig our toes into dirt, suspiciously, hesitantly, wanting to believe that it's spring, but watching, wary for the lion, fearing for the sheep, questioning the full sun and the empty trees and our hopes for a breezy summer.