Last night I was convinced that today would be a snow day. I am fully aware that this belief was not founded on anything logical. It didn’t snow yesterday, it wasn’t supposed to snow much last night, and I teach at a university, so you don’t really get snow days to begin with.
But snow day hope is a hard thing to kill.
So instead of packing my lunch, laying out my clothes, and going to bed at a decent hour… I stayed up watching TV till 2 am. 2 AM. I blame it on James being out of town and taking all sense of reason with him. To top it all off, I made the mistake of staying up to finish a season of Revenge, which meant I was then wayyyyyy too scared/angry/emotionally keyed up to fall asleep.
And then that alarm went off this morning. No snow day. Reality hit like a day you thought there would be a snow day and then there wasn’t.
But then again… there was still some snow this morning, and who can be truly upset when they look outside and see it frosted in white?
“You wake up on a winter morning and pull up the shade, and what lay there the evening before is no longer there–the sodden gray yard, the dog droppings, the tire tracks in the frozen mud, the broken lawn chair you forgot to take in last fall. All this has disappeared overnight, and what you look out on is not the snow of Narnia but the snow of home, which is no less shimmering and white as it falls. The earth is covered with it, and it is falling still in silence so deep that you can hear its silence. It is snow to be shoveled, to make driving even worse than usual, snow to be joked about and cursed at, but unless the child in you is entirely dead, it is snow, too, that can make the heart beat faster when it catches you by surprise that way, before your defenses are up. It is snow that can awaken memories of things more wonderful than anything you ever knew or dreamed.” — Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale
If it’s been awhile, go find a single snowflake and look at it. Unless the child in you is entirely dead, you will wonder. Wonder is the very best response when faced with individual snowflakes.
The Art in Life 
This is beautiful, Hannah. And I am glad you got a little bit of snow, even if you didn’t get your snow day 🙂
I guess I shouldn’t really complain since it was a short day… I just love how snow days feel like you are robbing time! : ) I’ll try to send some snow your way! : )
Have you read that entire Buechner book? It’s in my all-time top five. Also, I’ve been pouting all week because it snowed twice this week and last year taught me that every time it snows you get a snow day. It’s been tough to bounce back.
I haven’t but now I really want to!!! You did get spoiled last year… why can’t we just have snow days for the days it gets so cold that we shouldn’t have to go out?? You would think that the MI years would have made us strong, but I feel it just made me appreciate how cozy it is to be inside during snow.
Tommorow I do not want a snow day–even though the weatherman says snow is coming– because I’m planning on going to Cincinnati. However I still feel a little zip of excitment whenever I open the curtains and am greated by a white blanket.
Happy Cincinnati trip!! Shopping I assume? ; )
love the photographs on this one!