Like many places in North America, we have had record amounts of snowfall lately. And I always get a kick out of seeing the big dump trucks full of snow. Because there comes a point when there is simply nowhere else to put it, when the streets have become so narrow because of leftover snow piles that it’s no longer possible to drive on them. So the snow becomes a problem and they have to cart it away.
The same day as we saw the truck carting away snow, we saw this giant pile in a parking lot. And while I thought bitter things about how much winter can a person really take, my kids both said (almost in unison): “Wow, wouldn’t it be great to climb that?”
And there is the difference. Is snow a problem to be solved or is it a gift?
Too often I see my life as a problem to be solved. Snow to scrape off, roads to manage, strategies to think through and implement. But what would it take, what does it take every day to get back that sense of life as a gift, as a giant snow pile just waiting to be touched, climbed, and laughed over in the fading winter sun?
2 comments:
I read your title for this post and before I went any further, I thought, "You mean, snow is a gift." ha ha ha
This is not to say that I have any great insight on how to live in a way where one could see problems as gifts, but I think I live with younger children, and one in particular who has been lauding the benefits of big snow for weeks now. It wears off on us...instead of wearing us down.
Maybe having good friends or family with perspectives alternate to one's own is a solution.
I read your posts just every now and again and never all of them at once. Although I don't experience snow here in Sydney Australia, I still appreciate the pictures you paint with your words. Thanks again.
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