Nature Personified.

One of the things I truly appreciate about our home is the huge windows that look out over nothing but a wide expanse of fields and sky. It means I get to be a thankful spectator every single day to the many faces of nature. Amber sunrises, crimson sunsets, blinding lightning storms and star studded blackness. The blue, pink and white brush strokes of the northern lights sweeping across a black canvas and the stages of the moon as it waxes and wanes.

It’s like watching a spectacle and it is interesting to examine the emotions that accompany each one of these experiences. When we turn off all our lights and park ourselves in front of our dining room window to watch **a lightning storm** approach and overtake us our hearts are in our throats much as they would be if the headless horseman were charging our way.

Northern lights for me are akin to opera or a night at the symphony. I am held spellbound and breathless with a feeling of awe and of worship that can just hold me still and captive for hours. Even when the air is too cold for comfort or the mosquitoes are doing their part to drive me insane.

**Sunrises** and **sunsets** are like visits from a brilliantly clad flamenco dancer all flamboyant and beautiful, weaving rhythm and joy into the fabric of our day.

And the **moon**? Oh the moon. The moon is the face of a gentle friend smiling down on us through these prairie nights. When the winds of change take her away to make the rounds of other far away lands she is sadly missed, and when we catch sight of her making her way over the horizon we always welcome her with glad hearts. I wish she never had to go, but then again, her temporary absence surely makes me delight in her presence all the more.

The Moon’s the North Wind’s cookie

He bites it day by day

Until there’s but a rim of scraps

That crumble all away

The South Wind is a baker

He kneads clouds in his den

and bakes a crisp new moon

that greedy North Wind eats again.

Vachel Lindsay