WELCOME THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER

"On the first day of winter, the earth awakens
to the cold touch of itself.
Snow knows no other recourse except this
falling, this sudden letting go over the small
gnomed bushes, all the emptying trees.
Snow puts beauty back into the withered and
malnourished, into the death-wish of nature
and the deliberate way winter insists on nothing
less than deference. Waiting all its life, snow
says, "Let me cover you."
~Laura Lush~