It is snowing today. March roars and shakes its lion’s head and duff and dander fall white upon the earth. I have been out walking twice today. Early this morning I took the dog and we headed out. We came upon a curve in the road and I looked up to see two neighbor dogs, a shepherd and a pit-bull. I do not know these dogs, but I do know something of their owner, and I did not feel so good. They saw me though and turned and ran. I decided to continue my walk, but found a good stick to bring with me. I have not felt this discomfort when I have watched a coyote parallel my path through the fields, nor when I saw the markings of bears in woods in western Mass. Wild would choose to flee, but maybe not these dogs bred by man. I thought of a movie I watched not too long ago called “The Grey”. It is a movie of man pitted against the elements, but mostly against a pack of wolves. I chuckled at the running joke my friend and I now have from the repeated line of “Don’t be afraid”. What did I fear in this moment? I admit the walk was clouded with a different feeling and I never felt those moments of exaltation.

I went out again a few hours ago. The snow was coming down hard. Trees were covered and at times I needed to bend down under the laden branches of the hemlocks and pines. The woods were almost silent. It took a few moments of being still before I could notice a few calls from birds, the tzzz of a kinglet, was basically all that I heard, and that only in the deepest of the hemlocks. Walking by the beech with its dressing of dry golden leaves the sound of the snow was that of a rain-stick tilting slowly and gently. Or, is the sound of a rain-stick that of snow falling on the dry leaves of beech.

I have enjoyed this day. Reading, painting, writing, walking. So in a way I did get yesterday’s extra day.