Snow Day

I love snow!  I’ve missed the snow so much. The thrill of pulling back the curtains to an overnight transformation. The world outside, a bright white landscape heavy with pervading silence. More excitement, school was cancelled. It’s been too busy recently, too many things to check off the eternal to do list. The snow got in the way of the minutiae of life. I quietly said a little thank you to our snow day for this truce with my daily battle against time. No packed lunches to squish into plastic boxes this morning. Instead, we had snowballs to pack, snow traced trees to admire, snowflakes to catch on pink tongue tips, a cup of coffee to slowly savor. 

Despite the weather, we are honouring A’s football practice tonight, now that rain has replaced snow, football practice continues amid discarded and melting snowballs. In our cold car that smells of garlic and damp, I’m dining on hot dumplings and noodles squeezed into thermos flasks while I write and wait for A. In this soggy twilight I’m sustained by images from our walk through the snow dappled woods and across the fields with the snow falling thickly around us. The snow silenced the roar of life; its beauty quieted my sense of self. My mundane preoccupations shrank as I smiled to see the girls delighted faces, the stark contrast between the dark trees and the bright snow, the deer bounding through the startling green laurels, the snow crusted leaves of the coming bluebells and wild garlic, the heavy closeness of the sky. Thank you snow day for making me feel like a miniscule part of a wild, amazing world.