There’s a blizzard warning today.  We are supposed to get a ton of snow and it’s really coming down.  I took Adler to school with his boots, snow pants, gloves and hat all packed in his Avengers bag ready to go for recess.

I can remember being a child and enjoying the snow.  Snow days spent at home with my mom and brother.  Her cleaning off the driveway while we played in the yard all bundled up laughing and throwing the snow and flailing about as the flakes piled up.  Such fond memories of the snow.  I remember many Christmas’s that were white and sledding and having fun.  Adler had only played in the snow one time before the pain came and then illness.  So I am happy he gets to now.  Even if his little sensitive hands get chapped, he still loves it.

He is very much like me and appreciates the beauty of snow.  He likes how it falls to the ground in silence until you crunch it with your feet.  I sat here in our house watching it fall and smiled and thought “that’s it, I am going outside for a walk”.  So I did and took a selfie!!  My green eyes sparkling against the white background and my freckles still peaking out through my chilled rosy cheeks.  Lips cold and wet from the snow.

I walked softly across our yard listening to the sounds of winter.  The snow falling quiet and gentle to the ground.  My boots crunching it as I walked over the barely seen grass.  I tipped my head back and let the snow fall on my face and caught a few flakes on my lips.  I could hear the traffic in the distance echoing over the river.  The birds chirping back and forth as a reminder that spring will come again.  The evergreens dressed all in white now since it started about 4 hours ago.  The limbs of the trees getting heavy with snow and the ground losing it’s color as it accumulates.

Winter has a certain smell.  It’s not like any other season.  Summer is a memory of grilled meats and tanning lotion with warmth that rests in your nostrils.  Where spring smells like fresh rain and flowers and fall is spicy and smoky from burning leaves and apple cider.  Winter is of course associated with Christmas but the snow stays around afterwards.  So it smells of pine and ice it sticks to you when you come inside.  Your coat and hat and those toasty boots all collect the snow and the scent of winter.

The walk was necessary and appreciated.  I took in the physical appearance of the snow and all it’s majesty.  Beauty often involves an interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature which may lead to feelings of attraction or emotional well being.  So Wikipedia says anyway.  And I fully agree.  The snow does give me a sense of well being.  Even though it’s cold and hard to drive in and keeps my husband at work for many hours, it is truly beautiful.

I really dig the silence and calm of snow.  And how it blows about careless and carefree all at the same time.  How wonderful of a feeling is that?  But also to be so powerful that you close entire cities and states down with your magnitude.  Imagine that.  Mother nature knows her stuff when it comes to glamor.  Snow is graceful and delicate.  I held out my mitten covered hands and let the flakes fall into them and watched them melt.  There is an odd satisfaction in that.  Just taking the time and the moment to be present standing in the cold and feeling that snow whip me in the face reminds me I am still here.  Not that I wasn’t but just in case I forgot…….

I smiled and even laughed a little with my memories of the snow and the current feelings it was creating for me.  Just a little 10 minute stroll around my yard in the snow made my heart happy and my mind wasn’t anywhere but right there.  My thoughts were of those flakes and only that.  If my butt wouldn’t have gotten wet I would have say down for a minute.  So instead I leaned against our tree and closed my eyes and just listened and felt.  It was my winter meditation I guess.  Either way, I was calm and inspired and smiling.  Can’t ask for much more than that.

Whether a child or an adult beauty is visual and emotional and real and timeless and snow is all of those things all wrapped up in a whirlwind of cold and ice and solace inside our homes or offices as we peer out the windows and watch it come down.  But today, I felt like feeling it and being in it even if it was just for a little bit.

Oh I know snow causes accidents and delays and cancelations but I can’t help but see past that sometimes.  I think that is how I have learned to look at a lot of things in my life over the past couple of years.  It is what it is and to me, today, snow is beautiful.  I have learned to look past a lot of things and deal with them in ways that bring the best to the situation.  I haven’t had a choice.  So that goes the same with a blizzard.  Wasn’t my choice today but I might as well enjoy what I can out of it and not waist time complaining when beauty is just a few steps in the yard.