Clarity of light and a sense of ground relaxing; those are the things I appreciate this morning on the Fish Creek delta. The ground is still solid thanks the last night’s freeze but there is no wind and the temperature is climbing above 40 degrees F. Some ice covers parts of the pond but the rest of winter’s work lays scattered in sharp-sided chunks of crystal on the golden meadow’s grass.

 Aki runs this way and that, ears flapping, chasing ghosts. I hear a splash and think of the otter that tried to coax her onto the pond ice during our last visit. Opaque fog rises from the meadows like cold smoke. The little dog gives up on a promising scent to follow me out to the creek mouth where the snow-white Mendenhall Towers seem to be showing off in the morning sun. This is what full sun exposure can do to a rain forest dweller—it can turn us anthropomorphic. It makes me want to think of God as a human mother figure because this morning of Hers has given me comfort, beauty, and peace.