the sky…a fractured prism in the blue…projects beams…multiple shafts of light… a baby, skin the color of warm honey…floats within it...no wings…just buoyant…in a salient promise…a crow, black as midnight, circles… a harsh caw echoing through the still, cold air…not a shriek…but an anticipatory pronouncement…below,…on the snow…blinding white…shadow whispers… a quiet gathering…stones, exuded from the earthen foundry… shaped by water, fire, and frost…stand in precarious assembly…each stone a story… of passing ages…etched in the rough texture…a fragile balance…a marker to time's changing work…deer, eyes wide and gentle… scratch the snow nearby…rabbits, ears twitching, hop nervously…their fur a inexact camouflage against the snow…crows, black sentinels… peck at the ground…searching for scraps…no sound but the wind,…a low hum…and the soft crunch of snow beneath hooves and paws…the baby in the sunbeam… the crow's call…the stones…the animals…a tableau of new beginnings…a place where the earth…the sky…and life meet in quiet contemplation… a moment held…suspended…in the vast expanse of white…a chance to start a new…a clean slate…written by shadows in snow…a purpose whispered…not shouted… in the crow's call…in the baby's silent gaze…a thoughtful beginning…built on the foundations of the past…as solid as the stones… as delicate as the baby's breath…