Rebirth

Looking out the window, I was surprised to see leaves falling from a tree. I live at the ocean surrounded mostly by palms and evergreens.  Early darkness is one of the only signs of the seasons changing.

I don't miss winter. Back in the midwest, covering the crime beat for TV news often meant spending hours outside in blizzard conditions; murders, fires, kidnappings - they don't stop for winter.

My photographer and I once got stranded in an icestorm when our satellite truck's mast froze in the air (a safety device keeps the truck from moving unless the mast is down).

No matter how hard Mike hacked away at the ice, the mast would refreeze faster than he could scrape.

We were stuck. Frostbite. Hypothermia. Possibly freezing to death...

We put in an emergency call to highway patrol. "The roads are impassable," the dispatcher couldn't tell when help would rescue us. "We've got to try to reach the accidents first."

We'd be ok as long as we had gas to run the heater.  A State Trooper eventually saved us.

We endured a brutal, fatal winter that year. I left soon afterward and never moved back.

Hollywood lately has felt like winter - barren. bleak. destiny choked under a mound of frozen dirt.

But watching those leaves fall reminded me that there's a season for all things. We survive the storms. Barrenness yields to rebirth. Hold on to the promise as long as it takes.

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