Nuance 14

There is occurring, in my part of the country, a particularly cruel climate phenomenon. We have just ended a false spring, and winter has descended with particular nastiness on the West Coast. We don't have much in the way of snow, so far, but that could change in a couple of days. It is early February. Much of Canada languishes beneath layers of ice and snow, though strangely, it's warmer now in Toronto (the city the rest of Canada loves to hate) with six degrees and rain. We had mild weather throughout from November, sometimes with too much wind and rain. There were snowdrops already starting to bloom just before Christmas. Daffodils in early January, then crocuses and a few camellias. We were all just beginning to delight in this false spring, quietly hoping that it would continue past the last risk of frost in March. Now reality has hit, the flowers are all dead and we are bitterly cold and freezing. And, despite the lovely sunny weather and blue skies, I think many of us are battling depression. So much of our lives and our hopes are interwoven with nature. The early, if false and perfidious spring, corresponds with our quiet hope that our lives are improving, or will improve, the hope that we will not only get through this, but at the end, it will be somehow better than it was. Even though I am not a dog person, I find it interesting how much humans have in common with those disgusting and delightful animals. Disgusting? Well, how else can we describe an animal that stinks to high heaven, rolls in shit, eats it too, along with garbage and carrion, sniffs bums, pees on trees and the legs of people not walking fast enough, etcetera. Dogs are also affectionate, loving, loyal and self-sacrificing. They can also be aggressive, vicious and dangerous. Just like us. Dogs also live in the moment, and really, so do we, when we're not obsessed with the future and not beating ourselves up over the past. But when you see a dog left tied to a lampost or bike rack outside a store or coffeeshop, howling, whining and crying so pathetically and heart-rendingly for its human, one would think the poor animal has been abandoned forever. But dogs don't have that concept of time, and are absolutely incapable of rationalizing. Master has slipped away for five minutes and will be back in five minutes with a steaming take-out latte. Doggie doesn't know this, only that master is gone and this is the end of the world as he knows it. We are also like this. Our false spring has been shown for what it is. False. My false friends have revealed themselves for what they really are to me. False. The cold and hard reality of winter has set in and destroyed everything. True. It is going to stay winter forever and now this is the end of the world. False. This cold snap will soon end, and flowers will bloom again, and before we know it, we will be surrounded by the Vivaldi-notes of spring. We will get through this. In the meantime, bundle up. It's cold outside.