28 february: wednesday in the third week of lent

it happened behind the clouds, within the clouds, which the ancient greeks thought to be living creatures, who veil and reveal. the holy one was at work changing the sunset. after a week of evening clouds, the winter sunset had been put away, in storage perhaps in the depths unfathomable to us mortals. the winter sunset that edged obliquely under the horizon, circling the world with the bright darkness of christmas, was only a memory. the new sunset came to the horizon much more sharply, a bright arrow that left a simple brightness all around. the waves of the sunset bathed the bare but budding branches bronze, and those trees in its shadows had outlives fuzzy with coming flowers and foliage.