Yes, it is raining and gray in the Pacific Northwest

today, but it is also breezy out here. . In recent weeks hundreds of trees across Western Washington were flopped face forward into unwanted positions. It seemed they pulled up their roots and tried to say goodbye to their surroundings and some only made it as far as the nearest wire and took poles down with them. Others seemed to have searched out other forms of transportation, seeking cars or trucks, but the trees "weighed too heavily" on their transporters. Still others seemed to reach for shelter in a neighbor's yard, only to destroy the shelter they sought.

It feels surreal to write of the trees this way, knowing that what I have written is probably about something else entirely, a giant metaphor, although not written intentionally as such, but rather because I got caught up in the visual.

Our neighborhood had few trees pulling up their roots, we were the lucky ones.

Today, a minor Pineapple Express, a warm front is racing through followed by, of course, a cold front. And though nature may choose to unleash a gust, for now, the evergreens are swaying in the distance and our leafless tree succumbs occasionally to the call of the breeze and dances outside my window. That breeze causes the swaying that keeps a gray day from seeming dreary. It is a beautiful day today.

May your day be beautiful as well.