off in the distance I see lighting that I have never seen before.

I head up, briskly, to the field.  The sky opened up above me and I am surrounded by marbled blue and gray.

I see a white birch tree, a solitary tree amongst so many…..a single white line, and I marvel that I had never noticed it before.  I’ve always loved white birches.

birds flew away from the gray clouds…..hurrying.

I stand with the wind whipping around me as it suddenly begins to hail.

My heart rises with the birds.

Tiny bits of hail, about the size of baby peas landing with rapid pits and pats on the earth.  I look up, I look down, I pick some up to study.  They are perfect little pieces of frozen nature-art.  I eat some.  crunch crunch.  I walk home in the hail.  I feel alive.

“The awareness of life’s passing makes the now sweeter and more important.”  David Budbill