Every winter has this one day when you notice the return of light. By notice I mean physically experience and welcome with an inner sigh of relief. February 6, 2024 was such day. We haven’t had fresh snow for weeks. Instead, the January snow froze into a sleek shiny crust and every field looks now like a frozen lake. If you walk on it, it sounds like breaking glass.

I felt a lot of joy today. I hope that it radiated and warmed people around me a little. If you ask me today who I want to be, I’d say, I want you to be that woman whom people choose to stand next to in metro, because she smiles and wears beautiful earrings.