I stared out of the window to see a robin out on the lawn… the beauty of its red chest magnified by the sparse whiteness that surrounded it. It stood still a second… its tiny eyes seeming to be looking straight at me… and the beauty of it and of the world brought tears rushing inexplicably to my eyes… and suddenly I was crying for the first time since I was a baby… something I had not been able to do for years.

And still the robin watched… perfectly still… as the world carried on around it… its eyes on me and mine on it… as if I was staring at somebody I had known but had long since lost touch with… and the warmth swelled to fill my body… a warmth of flowers and suntears… a warmth of darkness and hope… a warmth of knowing… a warmth of falling or forgiving… a warmth that only crying brings…

And then suddenly, the robin was gone… gone up into the sky… smaller and smaller as it flew away from me… and smaller still until finally it was the color of the sky that framed it.