Nature knows.

Though I don't talk about it much on this blog, many of you know that my job lately has been one of the most trying, stressful situations of my entire life. I think I don't talk about it on this blog because I want at least one thing that hasn't been completely poisoned by work.

But sometimes nature knows what I need. I won't pretend that the gifts of this earth exist just to fulfill a human need, but sometimes Mother Earth lets me see things just when I need to have beauty in my life and expect it the least. I could go on and on about all the times this has happened to me - a wildflower shooting up between sidewalk cracks, the call of an owl, a perfect snowflake, a fox running across the road. But I'll stick to one example. Yesterday I went out in my backyard after work to say hello to our dog, and two red-tailed hawks took off from our oak tree and circled above me for several minutes, with a backdrop of a pink and orange sunset. I know this wouldn't be important to anyone else, but raptors of all kinds are extremely important to me - my favorite wildlife by far. In that quiet moment standing in the snow, nature reminded me that she is ever-changing, always adapting, moving forward, and that she IS, and always will BE, regardless of what happens in our small, pointless human lives. And I'd like to think that by some design, she lets us all have secret glimpses of her just when we need them most.