Let it Snow - djedwardson.com

Let it Snow

snowfall animated gif

Snow. It’s beautiful. It’s soft. It’s enchanting. Is it snowing where you live? Alas, there has not been much this winter in my neck of the woods. That’s why I love this picture. When I first saw it, it just made me feel like writing about snow. Because I’ve been in that picture, or at least some place almost exactly like it. And then of course I recently saw the movie Frozen which made me miss snow even more!

Snow is wonderful for so many reasons. One thing I love about it that I don’t often hear people talk about is that it makes the world so quiet. Have you ever experienced a deserted snowy street in the early morning or in the dead of night? Or better yet, been out in the middle of the woods in a snow covered forest? It makes the library seem like a rock concert. This is a level of quiet you rarely get to experience apart from snow and I always enjoy it when I do.

The world also slows down when snow takes hold. You have to drive more slowly. You can’t even run as fast in the snow. If it’s too powdery it’s like running through sand and if it’s packed too tight, it’s likely to be slippery, meaning you’d best proceed with caution. The pace of life slows down as well. People are less likely to make that extra trip to the shopping mall when there’s snow on the ground. They are more likely to stay home and sip a glass of hot cocoa, perhaps over a board game with family members. Snow often snuffs out the hustle and the bustle in our lives and nudges us to spend more time with loved ones.

You can also build things with snow if you have enough of it. It’s nature’s play dough. It can turn even the most artistically resistant among us into sculptors extraordinare. Snow forts, snow caves, snow men, the stuff just screams to be picked up and crafted into rough hewn masterpieces, monuments of winter that may last only a day or two or a week, but will turn your back yard into an outdoor art museum while they last. I love driving around town and spotting all the frozen creations people make after a big snow.

But I think what I most love about snow is the sheer beauty of it. I wrote a little bit about that around this time last year, but I’d add here that I think there is something transcendent about the beauty of snow. The brightness of its white is almost too intense to believe, as if light itself had been captured in crystalized form and made to dwell upon the earth for a time. Snow paints with a single, solitary color and yet if you’ve ever seen the sun shining off the snow crystals at midday, it is as beautiful as any multi-colored sunset over the ocean. Snow, fresh snow at least, holds a beauty that never gets old with the years. It can snow a thousand times and yet each snow can be as beautiful as the last.

So if you have snow where you are, consider yourself blessed. And if you can, go out and throw a snowball for me, or at the very least enjoy a cup of hot cocoa by the window as you watch it fall.

As for me, all I have at present are photographs. And memories. But much like all good things in life, I’d rather have at least tasted snow in the past and known it’s beauty and be missing it now than to have never known it at all.

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6 thoughts on “Let it Snow”

  1. Ah, snow. I miss it so very much. Every year, around November, I start to get a little bit irked with the weather in general. I know I shouldn’t complain about the weather that God has created and has directed me to live in… but a part of me wants to run off to Alaska around November 1st and stay there through the end of April. (That way I’d miss out on the oh-so-lovely pollen season here that thickens the air with a fine yellow mist that cannot be good for anybody’s lungs…)

    Haven’t really seen snow in two years now – except for going skiing in December – but to really walk through the snow, play in it, build a fort or a snowman (Leiana keeps asking when it’s going to snow so she can build a snowbunny – girl is obsessed with bunnies), or just bask in its silent ethereal beauty… haven’t gotten to do that in a long, long time.

    Nice to know there actually are others out there who love snow. Around here, one starts to feel like an outcast for being a “winter” person. 🙂

    1. I know what you mean. I feel like my the my kids’ lives are missing something because they don’t get to play out in the snow. A couple years back we actually all headed out to a ranch in Colorado and rented a cabin and just let the kids go sledding, build snow men, and have snow ball fights. Best vacation ever.

      1. It snowed here last night, and it was awesome! Of course, accumulation on our side of town was about 1/16th of an inch, but that did NOT stop us from going outside and playing in it.

        And then, since there really wasn’t enough to make a snowman… we made “indoor snowmen” which involved marshmallows and lots of glue. 🙂

        1. Ha ha ha. That is too funny. Marshmellows and glue! I’ll have to try that.

          We got a dusting as well, but it didn’t really stick. Still, it was lovely watching it come down. I was smiling to myself that we had snow the same day I posted this. God has such impeccable timing.

  2. I also like snow. Snowflakes are like people, no two are alike, they come in different shapes, sizes, and can be anything imagined if they work together.

    I also like the way snow dampens the noise of city life. I can’t wait for our first snow storm of the year!

    1. Yes, snowflakes are amazing, aren’t they? I saw some pictures online of some that were magnified to see the details and they almost look unreal.

      And just as a follow up to my lamenting about it not snowing much this winter, today we actually got a light dusting! It was pretty cool.

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