The sun comes earlier now...as the days of winter shorten. By 6:45 the sun is peeking in the little half circle window of my front door....slanting all the shadows from south to north. There begins to be some warmth to it's light and color, the whiteness pushed back, further and further. I open the blinds on my east facing window and the sunshine shadows fall across the entire room. Another day. Time. Seconds, minutes,hours making their way across my life...moving in the seemingly endless march toward darkness. Clarity and confusion. I have wondered about them, and concluded that they connect in a circle, slidding from one the other and back again..an endless circle. Impossible to stay fixed in either, that's the circles doing. Life, beginnings, ending...and all that stuff in the middle....where we muddle from day to day. Where does the time go ? Reflections. Did the Amish first name that quilt Sunshine and Shadows or does it go back further? And who first saw that pattern and thought about the suns journey across the sky? And maybe there is a reason I prefer Straight Furrows, with their lightness and darkness going somewhere. Today the sun near my computer falls across a piece from my scrapbag...Uncle Jim, my mohters oldest brother and a much more youthful Finn. Uncle Jim....part of the sunshine of my life. He lived in Milwaukee, WI all my growing up years, but he came north to see his mother, my Grandma Lottie, who lived with us. His visits were special..*VBG*...my mom made chocolate cake when he came...how can you beat that???