In our afternoon ramble through the backwoods yesterday
Kent, Hattie and I came home with cold hands and red
noses. The trees are becoming more stark each day. The
layer of leaves we shuffled through almost obscured the lane
we walked down.

And, yesterday for the first time I had to break a thin layer
of ice in the water troughs. I could relate to Emily Bronte
in her poem Fall leaves, fall.

Fall leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day,
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autun tee.
I shall smile when wreahs of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

With an outlook like that no wonder Wuthering Heights
contains so much of darkness and despair.

But this morning, even though I need to go break that
ice again, the smiling of the sun, and the sparkling delight
of the morning hold at bay the dread of the cold, dark
days ahead.

Besides, II Corinthians 4:16-18 helps to set me straight.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward
man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day
by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment,
is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory, while we do not look at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are tempoary, but the things which are
not seen are eternal.

Psalm 93 clinches the matter

The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord is clothed,
He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established,
so that it cannot be moved.
Your throne is established form of old;
You are from everlasting.

The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
Tje Lod on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.

Your testimonies are very sure;
Holiness adorns Your house,
O Lord, forever.

I will greet the day with a blessing, even if I have to wear
a scarf on my afternoon traipse through the woods.