Losing My Cover

By Carol Woolum Roberts

As I returned from my early morning walk with Cleo on Tuesday morning, I realized I missed something.

I missed the dark.

I have started to grow fond of the darkness and the hush of the quiet winter mornings when Cleo and I walk around the Silver Mountain Resort.  It is a somewhat private place to walk. This is the first winter my friend Nikki and I have walked around the resort throughout winter.

I have come to love the cover of the early morning dark skies.

Tuesday morning I took Cleo for her morning walk.  We were on our own, as Nikki was out of town.  It was light out when we left home.  There is still a little snow,

Not the new, freshly-fallen snow.

Not the "there’s a kind of hush all over the world" snow.

It is end of season snow.

Those early, dark mornings were comforting to me, and I felt safe.

The light makes me feel exposed.

It makes me feel like everyone can see me.

Most people probably welcome the light of a March morning, as the earth begins to change position and the days grow longer.

I do like it—but it is a different experience.

Soon the temperatures will increase, the ice and snow will be a memory, and Nikki and I will return to our regular walking route through town, in the light.

I will miss the Resort walks.  This place that gave us a way to walk outdoors all winter that was safe, well-lit, and usually the snow was shoveled so we didn’t have to worry about ice and snow.

We were sheltered from the occasional early morning winds.

The times I didn’t venture out were when the temperatures dipped below about 18 degrees.  That was a little too cold.

As the mornings transition from darkness to light, it will be a time of adjustment.  Soon I will love the warmer, brighter mornings.

But it may take a while to transition from being in my early morning cover of darkness to walking in the light.

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Does any part of you wish winter would stay, or are you ready for spring?

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