snowflakes

During the last days of April I was teaching German in my classroom and I looked out the window. White snowflakes were blowing through the air. I'm always trying to get my students to speak German in class. If I start speaking German in class they usually respond to me. So I burst into: "Schau an es gibt Schnee" which directly translated means "Look at that! It gives snow." My students responded (in German) "No that isn't snow those are blossoms!" Sure enough the beautiful flowering trees were releasing their flowers (and pollen achoo!) into the air and the wind was blowing them around and around in a blizzard like fashion.

Thursday morning the first of May I awoke and again looked out the window to find white snowflakes blowing through the air but this time they were real. I'd risen early to go running and seeing the snow I was tempted to crawl back into bed with sleeping Spencer but I'm glad I didn't. I'm convinced the avenues is the best place to run in the whole city. I climbed to the top of 11th Ave and ran from B street to Virginia and then back again this time cutting through the beautiful Salt Lake City Cemetery. I don't usually run through the cemetery mostly because until recently I've been running before dawn and dark cemeteries and solitude scare me.

It was beautiful. The snow blanketed the ground and all of the headstones were gleaming. A few flowers were poking through the snow which was continuously falling. As I was admiring the beauty of it all I realized I was not alone.

A brown fox ran past me and when he saw me he stopped dead in his tracks. I stopped too and we just looked at each other standing 20 feet away for a good sixty seconds. I suppose he decided I wasn't too interesting or threatening during those few seconds and then he was on his way. I stood their for a long time taking it all in: the fox, the trees, the snow. It is always so tempting to hit snooze and snuggle with Spencer in the mornings but then I remembered how much I love spending my mornings running.