Ice on the River

I drive over a bridge every morning on my way to work, and I check the river each morning. It's a habit stemming from a flood that took everything from me a few years back. I have this compulsion now to keep an eye on that river.

The past few days there was been a skim of ice on the water that's usually gone by the time I go home at night. Daytime temps and the force of the water is too much for it to get much of a hold.

This morning, however, the ice was a bit more...

Substantial.

No where near thick enough to support someone's weight. No where hard enough to be considered true winter ice. But...it's coming.

Winter.

Winter will wrap us in a coat of wooly snow and shift and dance around us. The ice will through thick and hard until its a troll's toenail. Snow with transfix us with its hypnotic glare that makes us feel the warmth in the cold.

Ice on the river. Cold in my bones. Peace around us, waiting to be found.