Sometimes the blue in the sky is a perfect cue for the sort of memories usually brought on by the smells of rain, incense and certain perfumes. Perhaps it is the hue of the sky or the patterns and consistency of the clouds, but the feeling appears like warm coffee at the center of my heart, a sensation that brings warmth as well as a conscious flavor to heighten my thoughts and sensations. Today’s sky is just like that.

There was a day when the snow was sparse and crusty in early March, and even the mountains were enjoying a thaw in the pre-equinox increasing abundance of sunshine. The oak, chokecherry and the creek were swelling; the trees their buds and the creek its contents in what seemed an increase in all beauty I was longing for.

This is what is being brought my mind by today’s sky here in Sanpete County, Utah. Memories of increase and abundance in the mid-winter of late January.

I watch the Lombardy Poplar outside my window with premature expectancy, as if at any minute it will burst out in new color, new ways of catching life from the light all around it. But that light brings little warmth today. That tree has been patient for many years of winters. I can wait too. I will wait.