The Epiphany

It’s Three Kings Day, the end of the holiday season. We are back from vacationing with the family, have finished the Christmas cookies, and are taking the tree down today. It is snowing, our first sticking snow of the year in Massachusetts. We can see the rabbit tracks on the snowy lawn, and hope that our local barred owl will have a feast. Those critters have been eating my hellebores, and I have become like Mr. MacGregor of the Peter Rabbit books. Winter is here, even as the days are getting lighter post-solstice.

I haven’t made any New Years’s resolutions, and maybe that is making me feel ornery. Or maybe its that I haven’t formulated how I will be productive in 2024. How many hats knit? How many new birds seen? How many new places visited? How many old places enjoyed? How many investments successful? How many friends seen? How many edtech founders mentored?

Today at Fresh Pond I saw what seem to me to be common New England winter bird sightings, of a common loon and lesser scaup. Because they were on Fresh Pond instead of at sea, eBird calls them rare. What makes an experience special or surprising? A difference of a few miles doesn’t seem right in determination of the rarity of a bird, but the ocean and an inland fresh water pond are different environments.

Many of my special. moments of 2023 were outdoors: seeing the northern lights in the Lofoten Islands in Norway, sitting under an oak tree in Mount Desert Isle, Maine and watching northern parulas and black-throated green warblers flit about while a black guillemot swam in Somes Sound. They were things I longed for, and complete surprises….and often just an observation that made that day seem special. They were sharing a book with a friend who would like it, or reading a book recommended by a friend….seeing the success of a mentee…

The days are getting longer, the last New Year’s cards are arriving. Time for new adventures.