Black Willow and Christmas Fog
Many of you on Cleveland’s east side experienced a heavy fog in lieu of snow this Christmas afternoon. As untimely as it may have been, and though the fog robbed the landscape of color, it also provided a background of beautifully diffused light that placed dark objects in high relief. This debilitated willow branch, escaping the tangle of bittersweet vine and an old crabapple, struck me as an odd but appropriate metaphor for birth and emergence on this particular day. Christmas Day, 2021
