Snow

An awesome wintery storm is blowing across the country right now, blowing quite literally.  It hit Buffalo the other night.  As a result, we got about 1-2 feet of snow at our place.

Snow, that’s one thing I love about living in Buffalo.  Buffalo is not cold though some may think so.  Minnesota – that’s cold.  In Buffalo, we don’t see that many days in the single digits or below zero ever, but what we do see, is snow.

We have Great Lakes on Two sides and the air/water/wintery combination creates Lake Effect Snow that can drop 1-2 feet in no time.  So Buffalo isn’t necessarily the coldest place, but we’re a pretty snowy place.

But I love the snow.  I grew up in Michigan, and spent many days out in the snow… running into the house for warmups (hot chocolate, sitting by the furnace, etc.) before heading back out again and again.  We had a hill across the street, “the big hill” as we called it.  So sledding was always at my fingertips. I loved the snow.

The summer before my sophomore year of high school, we moved to Arizona. My parents were happy to get out of the snow.  I can understand that.  And I didn’t mind, at that point, leaving the snow behind. Moving was a grand adventure that sparked, I now believe, the wanderer in me. I became quite the traveler over the 10 year period leading from college to marriage.  It was hard for me to remain in the same geographic place for more than a year or two. I just loved moving, changing the scenery, etc.  I hit San Diego, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Columbus (OH), Atlanta, Knoxville, Chattanooga, and then Buffalo. Our Buffalo stop has been my longest since San Diego… 5 years… but I am tempted to travel once again.

Snow. One of the things I have always said though, was that I wanted my kids to grow up in the snow.  I wanted them to experience that.  Each winter, I am reminded that this was the right choice.  As soon as a snow falls, Wil and McKinely are all over us, “Can we go out in the snow?”  They love it.  There’s something special, magical, about snow.

Snow takes a dreary cold, and turns it bright white.  It does so with a forgiving blanket of white.  Whatever may lie under that blanket is hidden… I don’t know, I sort of think of snow as a living metaphor for understanding the this phrase, “covering over a multitude of sins.”  Snow covers it all up, brings freshness, and beauty… almost, a salvation of sorts.  They’re just something special about it.

I love the holidays; noted that in my last post.  But I do think that the holidays without snow are missing a vital ingredient. Snow makes the holidays that much more holi (ok, that doesn’t quite work, but the point is, they improve the holidays).

My favorite song of the season, at least on many a days and nights, is the snowy classic, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” I love that beautiful white.  I love knowing that my  kids are going to head out into it for some fun.  I love the way it brings a quiet stillness to the day or night.  I love how it reminds me of the season… of the reason… of the wonder of the world we live in.   The world isn’t always a beautiful place… but it can be.  Snow reminds me that… it can be… it can be beautiful.

When the muck and mire of fall is covered in white, the dead leaves on the ground are covered in white, fallen trees are covered in white, the neighbors junk?  Yes, they too are covered in white. And the white just makes it all ok, makes it all beautiful.  And the hustling, bustling sounds of the world seem to stop – except for the occasional snow plow and its backup beep- beep – beep… – but the snow, it seems to cover both the site and sound of the world in white and quiet… and peace reigns.

Standing out in the wintery white, for a moment, it’s easy to forget all the “to-dos,” forget all the appointments, stress, tasks to finish… and just live in the moment, a moment of quiet, white peace reigning down upon us.  Yes, tis the season, and I’m so glad it is.  So I’ll be saying and singing all through it, “let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.”