We don’t get a lot of snow where we live.
A couple of times a year, we will get pretty white snowflakes that stay for a few days, sometimes a week or two at a time.
It snowed this past Monday. There was enough snow blanketing the ground to make snowballs and play a bit, but not enough to go sledding or cover the grass in the layered white disguise you typically think of when someone says that it snowed.
This is something that makes me happy about where we live. There’s not often need to shovel. The cold weather doesn’t stay long. We’re a quick drive to the mountains that do get enough snow for winter sports and activities, but it doesn’t surround us on the daily, September to April, like it did when I was growing up.
We have lovely views in Port Moody of the mountains frequently dusted in specks of white, sharpening the terrain of trees and rocky hillside, enhancing nature’s beauty. I have a great appreciation for winter and the snow-capped mountains, but for me, personally, I prefer to visit the snow. And have it visit me only a few times each year.
It’s snowing outside right now, in peaceful, floating flakes, teasing of winter. Will it stick? Will there be enough to play in later?
No one knows.
Especially not the weather forecasters that predicted the “snowmageddon” last month that never came.
(See this post for a view out the same front window, on a very snow day last year.)
Crushing Snowballs
Archer asked me yesterday whether I like the snow, or if I only like it because I know it makes him happy.
He is growing so fast, understanding so much. And now that he’s reading, it’s harder to sneak things past him.
I answered him honestly, that I do like the snow, I like to play in it and I also appreciate it for the joy that it brings him and his brother.
Isn’t that the case for all of us, with something that brings chaos when it visits, in an unpredictable way, falling, out of control?
Add finding peace in unknown times to the list of to-dos.
Embrace what falls around you. There’s no picking it up, so choose to live with it.
Appreciate where you are and what is happening around you for what it is.
Love the snow that you normally like.
Because you can.
Anya
[This is me speaking to myself here, by the way. It’s been a busy, stressful week, and it’s only half-over.]