green green world

People are beginning to agitate for the ending of winter here on the coast. At first glance, it doesn't seem that we have had winter, that there is anything winterish that needs to end. Exactly the opposite is true though. In fact, there is something about our winters here that rightly make us clamor for spring. Something that is unique to a snow-less winter in the northern hemisphere. It's not the temperature and it's not the rain although many people think rain is to blame. It is actually the darkness or more accurately, the absence of light that make winter such a sad affair here.
Further north or east, snow falls and stays. It helps to dispel the gloom of mid-winter by reflecting what light there is.
The blanket of snow glitters on a sunny day.
You find yourself squinting against the great expanse of white even on a cloudy day, and moonlight on snow can make the world as bright as noon.
All is fresh and white and clean.
Color stands out crisply but even the browns and greys of winter are beautiful when contrasted with the blues and lavenders of shadowed snow.
We don't experience that here.
Instead, we have large expanses darkly damp, dimly lit forest and field.
Our eyes seek the horizon, longing for light, but the sky is often grimly gray and brooding.
And so are we.
Light is coming though.
Minute by minute, the days lengthen.
Someday soon, a flush of sweet fresh green will stain the fields and spread to the fingertips of the saplings along the roadside and we will be sustained by light and color again.
It will be a green green world.