This morning's first snow inspired a feeling that calls for the word 'sublime'.

It started with a sleepy-eyed peek out the window and a shout to the kids "it's snowing!" and all the childlike joy that followed. Later, on Totten Pond a heavy white mist floated, driven straight through with whiter flecks of wind-whipped snow. The water was a choppy roiling gray, and the peak-autumn leaves all around were coated with white snowdust. In my car a shout rose in me and came out as a giant whoop. I had a vague thought of all this as the word 'weather' rolling in the mouth of the Great Poet.

On the radio (WERS) I heard the announcement that Rachel McCartney, a superb local singer/songwriter, would be there for an interview soon, so after I arrived at work I borrowed my friend's radio and tuned. Rachel started with a new, beautiful song called 'Gracefully'. She's used the word 'grace' effectively in another song, and it struck me that she carried herself through the nervously scripted beginning-interviewer's questions with a steady, experienced grace herself. She ended with the song 'Once Again', which struck a chord that reverberated right down through my feet as I gazed out the giant clear window into the infinitely layered mist of snow falling on trees. [Rachel is at Passim tonight in what should be a great show.]