I don't mind snow. I even can actually like it if it is a perfect winter day --- sunny, about 30 degrees, no wind. That is a gorgeous snowy day! But snow makes life more challenging for those of us who have any extra equipment to haul around (wheelchairs, walkers, canes, etc). Life just gets harder in the winter for a lot of us. And snow can be dangerous.
That wasn't God's original intention with snow. Ask someone who sees snow for the first time. It's magical. It's beautiful. It's like manna from heaven. The negative parts, I believe, are the fault of sin.
Not too long ago I had a dream that had a moment that was so vivid.
I want to experience that kind of snow! One day.
In the beginning of the last winter of my daughter Maggie's life, we told each other we would make it to spring. I think that winter I carried her to the car every morning when I took her to school (she was 11 but she only weighed 48 pounds). She circled March 20, 2013 on the calendar and we would say to each other daily, "One day closer to spring."
We both made it to spring that year, March 20, 2013. But the next day she flew to heaven.
I don't count the days to spring anymore. Instead, I get outside daily no matter how cold it is. I grow green things in the house (mold in the refrigerator doesn't count) and I create things. These things help me through winter. I can even appreciate its beauty and its crisp air and how snow can make anything look pretty. Plus, winter means Christmas and snuggling in heavy blankets and snowmen and silly Christmas movies -- and this year it means Thanksgiving too (the first year, 1998, we lived in South Dakota on Thanksgiving and on Christmas Day Shannon, and our two tiny kids and I rode horses. It was glorious).