This year, however, that first snow was particularly a thing of wonder - just about 10 inches in 24 hours, complete with closed roads, downed limbs, and widespread power outtages! Usually we don't get to experience THAT kind of storm until those icy, dreary days in January and February where, by then, all winter weather has lost its luster and we both grumble and celebrate having to spend the whole day inside....
This year, our inagural blizzard of 2010 ushered in a full-scale winter welcome. Fat, wet, heavy snow quickly buried the grass, the trees, the garden hose we forgot to put away earlier, the other tools we left outside from our recent basement cleanup endeavors....everything!
Some of the saplings in our yard were bent to the ground with the weight of it all - one even snapped its trunk!
And somewhere between a late, lazy Saturday breakfast and lunchtime, the power in the house went out completely....
I was, at that moment, engaged in a long-overdue deep-cleaning of the bathroom. Fortunately for me--elbow-deep in limescaled tiles--that bathroom is the only one with an outside window, providing adequate light by which to pee...or, scrub....or...whatever.
Outside of this one productive activity, my inner To-Do list went something like this:
This continued, of course, until somewhere near the bottom - though never so far down as to be forgotten, was this:
Three cheers for having at least one hobby that doesn't require electricity!
Dad was forced to give up watching TV, and after an hour or so of reading, he opted for a nap in the bright-but-quiet afternoon. Mom already had a headstart on that one - she's disappeared into their room long before... Hey, there were suddenly no have-tos. No rules. No expectations. Just the purest of opportunities to REST....
My brother had been intent upon writing/editing music that day - generally conducted on his computer with the help of one or more electronic instruments hooked up to it. He ruefully took up the old-fashioned practice: a pencil, paper, and the plain ole' piano. He seemed OK with it, though - there's something raw about music written this way - no editing, autotuning, constant repetition and tweaking.... just the unadulterated sound of the strings reverberating "live" off the living room walls - no rules, no expectations. Just music.
Then there was me - happy - no, gleeful, even - to put away my sleeping computer, clear off the dining room table, and then bury myself in a web of papers, inks, stamps, do-dads and thing-a-ma-bobs. A raw mess of my own choosing. No rules. No expectations. Just creating...
The hours droned on, but we were all blissfully unaware - half of our clocks weren't working anyways. Meanwhile, the snow kept falling - heavy and silent. A few plants and trees pushed back against the weight and sent piles of the stuff raining below. Besides the occasional piano chord, even inside the house was oddly silent. It is amazing to think of all the noise we live with day-to-day without even thinking: the refrigerator humming, the computer fans whirring, flourescent lights buzzing.
But today it was QUIET. Could have been eerily so, I suppose, had the bright white of the outside not come shining through the windows, bearing with it a simplicity, an innocence, a peace....
THAT must be what "Sabbath" is supposed to be about. And my, how long it has been since we've fully practiced one of those! When was the last time we stopped working on the house? When was the last time we DIDN'T enslave ourselves to the To-Do lists that rule our thoughts and lives and just STOP. When was the last time I sought out the silence?
...And peace? What of that? It always seemed more productive to get some things done than to seek out and pursue that often-elusive quiet calm of soul that suddenly now seemed so necessary to health and well-being...
Well today, it seems, if I wasn't going to pursue it, God would make sure it found me.
And that it did. In the serenity of falling snow. In the absence of the distraction of modern technology. In a few hours of blissful, and unguarded creativity - a celebration of gifts given and received - an act of praise and worship truly from the heart - without prodding, scripting, or force.
I'm telling ya, there's just something about a fresh-fallen snow.... Honesty. Simplicity. Love. and Life. There's just something about it....
....that I needed.
Thanks, God.
Forever Yours,
~me.
"...and You'll always be the wind under my wings above me..." ~TFK
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