Let is Snow!!!

Its snowing out side, so I'm happy.

There is just something about the visual change that the white blanket of snow makes that affects my emotions... I really do love it when it snows.

Now, I'm not talking about flurries or just light snow, but that classic blizzard type of snow most often associated with Currier and Ives. I don't like flurries (it lacks commitment), I don't like slush (too darned messy), freezing rain I don't mind (it looks pretty on the trees) as long as my car is in the garage, but snow... just plain white snow is an amazing thing.

The change is seasons is as necessary to my sanity as salted water is for the creatures who live in our world's oceans.

Maybe its the isolation?

I remember being a kid and loving to sit and stare at the snow coming down from our farm house's bay window. The joy that I had knowing how much fun I was about to have going out, playing in it, making forts, wallowing around in it, made me quiver with excitement. It was this amazing change to our landscape: hills and valleys came out of nowhere, an amazing construction project of titanic proportion would be undertaken by nature's own hand in a manner of hours transforming a bland lanscape into a wild fantasyland. I could dig in it, I could tunnel, I could build masions, I could form whatever I wanted, and unlike in the Summer months, I wouldn't be scolded for all my messes in the back yard (contrast this with the time I decided it'd be a fun time to dig a huge hole in the back hard, fill it with water, and float around in my inflatable boat... mom wasn't too happy with me that day).

Later, in my teens, snow was my solace, my peace, my individualism. Snow meant I could go skiing and be at one with just myself. I had my isolation there again, riding the ski lift, meandering down the hill at my own pace. Just being me. Six days a week, provided my valuable snow was still there, I would either have the bus drop me off from school or get early in the morning to have mom drop me off me off at the "slopes". I'd stay 'till closing. Most of the time, I was out on the hill (we didn't have much money, so I couldn't afford to gorge out on food all the time like so many of my other peers would). Maybe I was just a 'loaner' or a 'recluse', but that time was mine.. all to myself. Rarely would I ski with friends (most of mine were just from school, and they didn't like winter sports anyways), and the resort I skied at (Holiday Hills in Traverse City) had outdoor speakers playing top 40 hits all day long. My memories of the music of my youth revolve around that place, and I get nostalgic every time I hear 'retro' 80's songs on the radio.

Today, the snow means time away from the yard, the pool, outdoor duties, the neighbors, the kids, and the warmth of the outside. Its a time for me to 'reset' my mind and priorities. I focus on my family, our house, cleaning up the messes made over the Summer (yes mom, I still make other messes as big as that hole in the back yard, but now they're mostly inside the house).

I think my kids are growing to love snow as much as I do. When they were young, the snow meant a time when they couldn't be outside (a baby just can't do much in a snow suit except get frustrated) and wasn't a time they liked much. As they grow older, though, the snowy outside is now becoming a winter wonderland for them. We're making snow forts, throwing snow balls, sledding, making "snow angels", playing with the dogs, and generally having fun for hours upon hours.

The snow fills my heart with a kind of inner peace and warmth. As I grow older, the things it brings to me have changed and are ever changing, yet each new page is as amazing as the previous one. I love it.

jp