Signs and Portents
Comments: 4
The final sunset of last year was a bit of a wash. A perfectly fine day clouded over mid-afternoon in a way that seemed promising, but the clouds thickened up to block pretty much all light by the time the sun went down.
At midnight, when we went out to visit temples, the sky was clear and I thought we could look forward to a bright clear first day of the new year. We woke late to clouds and a drab grey light that seemed to promise 12 months of the bleakest despair. I tried not to take it personally.
We ate a traditional New Year’s breakfast and went for the first swim of the year, and while we were in the pool the clouds arranged themselves into great avenues across the sky paved with sunlight which came streaming in through the windows. For the rest of the afternoon the whole sky filled with the most accommodating clouds and a delicate pale winter light that really was beautiful, and I was heartened and felt better after all.
It might be a good thing if my moods depended less on the weather and the sky and the light and other meteorological considerations (maybe the secret to everlasting happiness is simply relative humidity), but really, who’d have it any other way?
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Posted to Photographs • 2004.01.02 (Fri) • 23:15
Comments
Posted by Dave 2004.01.03, 15:52
Your new year effectively kicked my new year’s ass.
Posted by Abhimanyu Chirimar 2004.01.04, 13:34
Happy New Year.
I come to your blog quite often. Apparently temples are huge in Japan for new years eh?
Posted by aaron wall 2004.01.05, 09:08
The changes of weather stimulate different ways of thinking. I am certainly glad that I am somewhat dependant to things beyond my control. it makes life more interesting that way :)
ps: the shortest day of the year is already over :) :) :)
Posted by jh 2004.01.05, 21:10
Aaron, I was just talking to a friend yesterday and we were saying how it still somehow feels that we’re plunging into the darkness of winter even though the solstice is behind us.
January and February are usually pretty cold here, but it may be that because December was unusually warm, we have the impression of solstice-yet-to-come.
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