He was mostly kidding me, I think, my kind hearted relative-in-law who doesn't have facebook but still knows what's going on because his wife does. And he reads my blog too. "I haven't seen any new posts on 'what's to love about winter' lately…" That was his gentle nudge on a recent snowy day. I think it was a challenge... And I'll admit, it's been quite a winter. Snow, upon snow, upon snow, followed by brutal cold, a few hours or half a day of sunshine, and again, snow. Schools have had two hour delays, followed by snow days, with more two hour delays and a few early dismissals thrown in for good measure. I think they'll be going to school until June 11. So far. The snow is piling up in parking lots, and mailboxes need dug out over and over again. In the dark of night, snowdrifts creep back onto scraped roads and driveways. Beside the road, banks grow high and higher, mounds of snow such as I remember from my childhood days. |
the complaints about the weather,
the sarcastic remarks and pronouncements of doom on hapless weather prognosticators…
those are piling up too,
and it's not nearly as pretty
as the snow scenes straight out of Currier and Ives that no one seems to notice anymore.
And on a certain level, I get it. If one must venture out for work on these wild mornings, if someone is wading through knee deep snow to put wood into the furnace (that'd be me, this week!), if a person must deliver the mail or drive a milk truck…or any truck for that matter, certainly the novelty of those first snows scenes of the winter has disappeared like a solitary snowflake on a warm car hood.
But unlike the "stuff" my neighbor spreads to build up the soil, the complaining and grumbling and whining and carping serve no useful purpose, although you can hear it everywhere - at the Post Office, in the grocery store, across the aisle at work, the comments slip into most conversations on most days...I've read the comments on social media: "I'm. so. over. this. snow." "I'm just done with you, winter." " No, no, no, no, no," accompanying a link to a weather forecast. It's kind of funny in a sort of bent, winter-cynical way. As though one's "being finished with winter" is going to make.any.difference.at.all. The truth is, it's not going to change a thing. Heated comments won't raise the air temperature, and spouting off about being sick of snow won't prevent another snow storm's arrival or melt the stuff that's already here. We can't change those things because, as we so often forget, we are not in control. Not of the temperature. Or the amount or frequency of precipitation. It's not like we can make spring arrive sooner by our many complaints about winter. The only thing I can change is my attitude, my outlook, my perspective. It's a choice I need to make, day after snowy day, To be grateful for this day, this season, this beauty, because for this day, this is what is. This is where my feet are, and I must learn to be grateful here, or nowhere. |
I am taking up the challenge my family member gently laid before me,
and daring to say –
Thursdays are for thankfulness!!
What's to love about winter?
Snow. Snow. Snow. Snow. Snow.