Homeward Bound

Sleeting, slushy snow today.

I knew the Subie wouldn't make it through the deep ruts that formed over the last several days of thaw, and so I set off on foot for the post office...uphill, downhill, uphill again...through that sleeting, slushy snow.

For a moment, I wished I'd had my camera, forgetting how sadly broken it is, but then scratched the thought. This was a walk I wanted etched in my memory. I breathed deeply, enjoyed the task of warming my body through movement whilst icy bits of snow blew against my face. I listened to the crunch, crunch under my boots and stopped every once in a while, with eyes closed, to absorb the quiet...only the sound of the snow falling...firm little pellets pitter pattering like a gentle rain on a roof.

Eventually, I came to the spot in the road where yesterday a kind soul with a Very Big Chain pulled car and I out of the muck we'd bottomed out in. It was squishy squoshy chocolate-y mud then...now the layering snow had crusted it up, producing an Arctic, Post-Apocalyptic landscape of deep, snow-crunchy ruts that looked like cracks in the earth. So, so still and quiet, but for the swirling sleet, coating my glasses and melting on my wooly hat.

A little over a mile to the post office...greeted with a familiar smile and some friendly conversation...with a pang, I felt how much I will miss that simple ritual. I will even miss the chilly walk back, having been soaked all through from thawing out at the PO.

And I will miss the Winter. The deep, the dark, the biting cold, the frozen landscape, the intense appreciation I feel when the whole of my world turns green and sparkles with life when the Spring finally springs.

Two more months until I say goodbye to New England. I will leave a piece of my heart here, good friends, and some of the most difficult challenges of my life. I will take with me some beautiful memories and a whole lot of hope for starting over in the homeland.