“Do not despise your own place and hour. Every place is under the stars, every place is the center of the world.” ― John Burroughs

I love dark days and leafless trees
I find them comforting and safe

I remember being 17
I remember the pain of missing, deep in my heart

While doing the dishes
I watched the outside world
From the kitchen window
A world I knew nothing of
Nothing was familiar
Even the dishes felt foreign in my hands

This was a world of dark days and leafless trees
This was not the winter I knew
Tears would streak down my face 

I remember asking myself
Often out loud:
What am I doing here?

The answer never came
There was no answer
I knew I was where I was supposed to be

The alternative, to go back
To the place of warm sunny winters
And forever green trees
Was always an option

But never the option for me
My choice was to stay and discover
Stay and grow up
Stay, persevere and become

That is how I fell in love with leafless trees and dark days

(this is from and for the 17 year old me that arrived in the US clueless, bright eyes and bushy tailed, knowing nothing but with a heart overflowing with hope and enthusiasm. 37 years later I am still here, I am still the same and yet so changed and so changing)

“All of us might wish at times that we lived in a more tranquil world, but we don’t. And if our times are difficult and perplexing, so are they challenging and filled with opportunity.”― Robert Kennedy