"Snow Blindness"

 

     I am presently looking out my bedroom window and the snow is falling so intensively,  you can hardly see our pine trees or our pond.  Everything comes to stop when there is snow storm.  I like that.  I love it when I am forced to become still, and focus on on the quiet and the peace the snow generates.  There was a time when I had to drive in all kinds of snow storms to get to work.  The record I believe for one commute, was four hours from Westchester. I am extremely grateful that the snow has been kind to me through the years.

     Each of my winters becomes more and more reflective.  The snow forces us into action.  Eventually, we have to get outside with our extra layers and move the remains of Mother Nature's cleansing.  Snow cleanses.  The purity and the stark white haze remind us how vulnerable we can really be.  We are not omnisicent.  We have to slow down our speed and let nature perform as it should.  Nature has more control than we care to admit.  It demands our respect or we proceed at our peril. Snow teaches us to be humble.  Snow teaches us patience and to be mindful.  

     As with most things, snow does not last.  It remains until the sun decides it is time to  nurture the earth for another spring.  When there is a heavy snow storm, I stop everything.  I like that.  There is that feeling of safety and warmth watching the snow cover up all the barren trees.  When it snows, I feel that sense of purity and gentility the snow creates.  My husband fills the bird feeders the appreciation of our "bird friends" is beyond satisfying.  Snow makes us take care of others.  It brings us a focus we forget we have at any other time of year because we are forced to be still for a time...at least until we have to shovel or plow.

When I am out in the cold, I wake up. The cold makes me sensible. Everything slows down and the cold reminds me to be warm or "warmer" to others and to myself.  The snow used to make me fearful.  Now I embrace it and understand that although I am watching winter, spring is not that far away and it is the winter and the snow that makes everything else possible.