Today is a snow day.
The second one in a row.
Most of the city is shut down. Schools are closed.
For any of us living on a hill or mountain, we are housebound unless someone has snow tires or chains.
But even many of those who have the means to get out choose to stay put.
It’s just the nature of a snow day.
I’m working in my office today. Outside my window I see a neighbor and his son sledding down our street.
It got really cold overnight, which made the top layer of melted snow freeze from yesterday. They are sliding fast, crashing into a snowbank as they spin out at the bottom of the hill.
When I was a kid, I lived for a snow day.
All us kids did.
I’d bundle up and grab a sled from the garage. There was a hill below my house where a bunch of us from the neighborhood met up to sled. The runs were fast, and we’d go and go and go until our cheeks were raw and ice crystals covered our mittens.
When I got back inside, I’d lay my mittens on the radiator in the front hall. It would hiss and pop as it warmed up, thawing my mittens, getting them ready for round two.
Mom would make home made cocoa for me and my brother using evaporated milk and Nestle Quik. It never tasted as good as it did on a snow day.
Kids today love a snow day, too, which warms my heart. Gets them outside doing something besides sitting in front of a screen.
My 17-year old son and I built a snowman together. He brought his artistry to the project, shaving and rounding each of the snowman’s layer until it was smooth.
Even though I’m in front of one of my screens right now as I write this post, my mind is already off on the snow day adventure I will be taking shortly.
Seeing my familiar world under 10 inches of snow is good for me.
It’s good for all of us.
I was thrilled to get a text from my friend last night who used the acronym WFH when describing her plans for today.
WFH? I texted back.
Boy, are you out of it! she replied. “Work from Home.”
Oh. What I do every day.
Even on a snow day.
But only for a little while.
When conditions like these come along, you take advantage of them.
Create memories. Expand your perspective. Think.
I hope she gets outside for awhile, too.
Hard to beat being out in a landscape hushed by snow to allow the mind a rest so it can figure out what’s next.
Whether you WFH or otherwise.
Yes.
Hard to beat a snow day.
