Laughing Knees

Downy feathers of snowflakes are falling like lost children from the sky this evening. It is the first snowfall this year. More than likely it is but a whim and the morning will find the earth as bare and dry as weeks gone by.

I wasn’t quite sure where I was headed on Monday, but with a day off and bright, sunny weather, I threw together my day walk kit, slung the pack over my shoulders, and stepped outside.

Spent the afternoon watching The Last Samurai yesterday. When I first saw the preview for it last summer, I groaned, “Oh God, no, not another epic movie about some white guy becoming a downtrodden and less enlightened people’s icon, who saves them for their own good!” After hearing good reviews about it from the Japanese press, though, and getting some thumbs up from a few of my students, I decided to give it a try.

The sunlight is delivering peace this afternoon, alighting upon the window pane and and sifting through to the walls, where the white glare heats the chill like a silent furnace.

Wow! That’s a lot of comments I got for my post the other day and yesterday. Thanks, I appreciate it. Hope we can all create a great community this year. I look forward to reading more of everyone’s thoughts and stories. And to the great number of new bloggers (I’ve been quite surprised by how many newcomers there are… maybe everyone was getting blog subscriptions for Christmas? TypePad must be making a bundle!), welcome! It will be interesting to hear what the new voices have to say.