Announcing Snow Week!

I've had several requests lately for pictures and info about snow, how we handle it, what we do in it, etc.  So, I've decided to initiate our first ever "Snow Week" here on Trautman Adventures … a week's worth of posts, pictures, and yes, perchance even a little video or two, all about the snow!

So, we'll start off with yesterday … Benjamin and I stayed home from church because he has come down with a nasty little cold.  poor thing :(

and all of sudden, I looked outside and holy cow!  There was a blizzard going on out there!  (not really a blizzard … a lake effect snow storm.  As an aside, whenever there's a big blizzard that's making headlines, we're probably not getting anything.  But we get massive amounts of lake effect snow that doesn't make the news at all.  At least, that's been our experience so far.)

Benjamin thought it was pretty crazy, too!

There is something about the snow that I've come to appreciate … gasp!  I know, I know, the southern girl is admitting there are some positive aspects about the snow.  It's true that there is beauty … especially after all the old snow has gotten plowed up and muddy and slushy, it can be really refreshing to have a few inches of fresh whiteness over everything.

But what I'm beginning to appreciate in addition to the beauty of the snow is the sense of stillness and quietness is brings.  It can snow three inches in an hour and you would never hear a thing (unless there are wind gusts, but that's a whole other story).  When there is freshly fallen snow on the ground and you walk outside, there is a sense of quiet, hushed stillness.  Like God has spread his blanket of purity and light over the world for a few brief moments … before we humans come along and plow, shovel, blow, throw, and scrape it away.

I hate really dislike humidity, that feeling of heaviness in the air, that you can feel the very air as you breathe, its so weighted with moisture.  But God uses it to remind me that He is close to me, close as my very breath.  Rainy days on end get hard to handle as well, but they remind me of the song …

         Send Your rain, Oh Lord, 
         Send Your rain, Oh Lord, 
         Send Your rain to Your people.
         Send Your rain, Oh Lord, 
         Send Your rain, Oh Lord, 
         Send Your rain. Bring Your Kingdom.
         Soften our hearts, Pour out Your Spirit
         Fill us anew, Let Your rain come.


And I often sing the lyrics as I (somewhat grudgingly) drag out the umbrella.

And now snow is coming to signify to me a deep breath of stillness and quiet in the middle of world that is all too often hurried, loud, and full of its own importance.  Snow, a collection of beautiful, delicate crystals, can bring us to a complete halt (though not as often in Syracuse as Memphis :) or surely slows us down, quiets us for just one moment, a moment to reflect on holiness, stillness and the beauty of the Lord.

And then you have to go shovel.