December 1: Advent Gratitude

Today I woke up to the full moon. It has been cloudy for days and I was sure I had missed it, but it shone bright in the dim winter morning. As the light came on, it dropped like a gold coin below the trees bare and beautiful in their bareness.

We went for a bike ride before work. In Richmond Park the shadows were still long, the sun low, turning the ponds into bronze. Herds of young deer gathered on the hillside and under an Aspen grove. Off on their own, the stags stood mostly alone, two bucks with their horns locked leaning down together in what looked as much like love as fight.

Cars have made our modern roads, shaped our urban landscape, but the bike is fighting back. The Royal Parks are considering a ban on through traffic. One day maybe bikes will roam freely in the clean air of the future.

Today I am grateful for the freedom of my body wheeling into a cold clear dawn.