Talk About the Weather

There’s a lot of talk about the weather. “Global warming” (wag the dog), pounds of snow in atypical climates, groundhog news, icy, slushy Olympics and all. Moaning, groaning, predicting, and whining.

I live in the Midwest. We’ve had white ground since December 9th. It’s tried to melt a couple of times, but to no avail. We keep getting a fresh dusting (or dumping) off and on which has kept a nice white glow covering the usually grey and muddy landscape. It’s the first time this has happened (for real) in years and years (although Christmas cards and textbooks would have the rest of the world believe otherwise).

It’s pretty magical, almost divine, I think. I don’t know about you, but I truly needed a sugar coating this winter. There’s enough daily grey just turning on the news and opening the mail. It’s fantastic to look out to see a “wonderland” (to quote the Abominable Snowman in Monsters Inc.) rather than muck. Not to mention how great it is to let the dog in and not worry about giant, black paws all over the floors!

My kids and I have made snowmen and snowmice. We’ve sledded. We’ve hiked. My husband has snow shoed. We’ve had no loss for dog toys since our German Shepherd fetches snowballs (and every so often, he unearths a real dog toy and then it’s amazing fun.) They’ve experienced frozen pond, thawing pond, refrozen pond. We’ve investigated the tracks that various creatures have made in the snow and commented about who chooses not to walk a straight line.

Honestly, I’m not ready for the melt. I’ve needed this winter’s hibernation. I’ve needed time to cozy up in a cocoon and decide what the butterfly might look like come spring. We’ve been reinventing “fun” and “necessity” which may now become tradition.

With so very much out of control at the moment, it’s so nice to sit back and marvel at what nature delivers and see what’s possible when we work with what arrives.

Where’s your “fresh snow?” Have you chosen to play in it or wish it away?