The sudden thaw has set the earth to rushing.

Pools of melted snow and ice frantically push around everything in its path, hurrying toward a destination that I don't understand.

As I stand in the middle of the frenzy, it feels almost as if the past year is slowly leaking away to take its official place in the category of the past. The ground that was so snugly dressed in the face of winter is now peeled back, exposed and raw and set to the task of rebuilding.

It is old and new at the same time, the end and the beginning that will have each one of us stepping over the line into the next year.