The Snowy Week

“One winter morning Peter woke up and looked out the window. Snow had fallen during the night. It covered everything as far as he could see.”

― Ezra Jack Keats, The Snowy Day

For my entire upbringing I lived in MN. Snow was just what happened in winter. We were used to it. It didn’t shut us down. School rarely, if ever, closed. You learned to drive in it and you learned to live in it.

Screech ahead 25 years and I find myself in the Pacific Northwest, Western WA to be exact. Snow doesn’t just happen here. We are not made for it. With lots of hills, and a very wet climate, snow does shut us down. Schools do close and we don’t learn to drive in it or live with it.

This past week we were like Peter in The Snowy Day and woke up to snow as far as we could see. Lots of it. Heavy and wet and difficult. The Kids have been out of school the majority of the week. On Monday, everything but the hospitals were shut down. It is crazy strange for this Midwest girl transplanted here 25 years ago. But, I too, have succumb to the fear of the snow and I do not like to go out at all. It is very different here. Wet and icy. Kitsap County alone, a place of over 900 miles of county roads has 20 plows and 60 employees. They worked 12 hours on and 12 hours off and would take 36 hours alone to plow just the “priority 1 roads” and another 36 hours to plow the next level. But they are prohibited from going on to private roads. There are a LOT of private roads. Our road is “private” and a dirt road at that. We absolutely NEED our 4×4 low in order to get up and down our road. I cannot imagine if we didn’t.

I’m not telling you all this for pity. I’m not complaining.

I’m amazed!

I’m in awe of this world I live in covered with snow, forcing us to slow down. Many of us lost power due to the heavy snow (12+ inches in 3 storms). This forces even more of a slow down. One that is very welcome to me in this house full of electronic devices that seem to never turn off.

I love the snow.

It is pure. It is beautiful. It is welcome!

Not everyone feels that way. And most likely the vast majority are sick of it.

But look at this beauty. This amazing creation to cover the brown, dingy, dirty world. Even if briefly.

Take it in and stop for a moment and thank God for it’s beauty.

Snow was falling, so much like stars filling the dark trees, that one could easily imagine its reason for being was nothing more than prettiness.

Mary Oliver, poet