snow

What is it about the snow that brings out the kid in all of us?

Okay, so pretty much anything brings out the kid in Joe

Whenever I watch it softly falling and accumulating on the grass

Or awake to a world blanketed in white

I feel a familiar excitement rush the color to my cheeks and I start a silent countdown ‘til the hour that I will be able to get outside to play in it.

Maybe this giddiness is a product of nostalgia-

the childhood memories of sledding birthday parties on that dirt road behind our house that was the perfect private hill (until they gated it off).

snow fights with the neighbors, building snow forts and snowmen,

making snow angels

"I'm going to go with . . . myself." She tried it alone and was instantly hooked. 

Maybe it is a product of the season-

white Christmases and the joy of celebrating our Savior’s birth

the warmth we feel inside constrasting so sharply

with the cold that is outside.

the coziness of hot chocolate and firesides

the temporary and fleeting nature of what will soon melt away

Or is it the romance of frost-glistened trees and deep drifted snow out the windows of a cross-country train? The beauty of endless forests draped in white and the pureness that newfallen snow lends to an otherwise drab but dearly beloved Russian city? Could it be true love’s first kiss? first date? first blush of eternity all wrapped up in the cold white blanket that is snow.

Maybe it is just magic that falls down with the snowflakes, whispering for us to live with less worry, enjoy each moment, and notice the beauty around us.

I love watching my children feel the magic. I get giddy with them and from my observations this year, I don’t think I’m the only one.