Pause.... and Begin Again

Seattle, Washington. January 1, 2006

THE RAIN HELD STEADY for three days. A constant tapping on the roof. Streets slicked with it, the trees drooping, the ground drenched and the people in a scurry.

Around ten in the evening the rain tapered off and then stopped. By eleven the clouds that had blanketed Seattle drew back to the fringes of the city and the stars appeared.

We stood along the edge of the heights looking down the damp slopes on grass that still soaked our shoes. All around us the thousands of others who had come to watch counted down the seconds as midnight rolled past us around the globe.

And then that year turned into this one.

Chilled we hurried back to the house, sloshing along the wet sidewalks under a shovel of stars as the old year faded far to the west over the slow Pacific swell never to return.

All in all, it was a good end to a bad year.

Posted by Vanderleun at January 1, 2006 12:35 AM