IT'S SNOWING

It is snowing outside. It's a steady, swirling small-flaked kind of snow. The ground is pretty well frozen after several days of real cold. This snow is likely to stick for awhile. We had snow on Thanksgiving weekend but it all melted within a couple days.

I love the snow in the trees and on rooftops. Life seems to slow down a bit when it snows. Years ago, while living in Florida, I met a guy from Maine who had moved to Miami. We were talking about the differences between the two states. I'll always remember how he described life in Maine. He said when it snows life slows down a bit. It becomes more human. People were not meant to go at full-speed 12 months out of the year, he said. In Florida, with air-conditioning, he felt life there was full-out warp speed year round. I think his observation was profound.

I know it happens to me. I get going at a certain pace and I go mindless. I keep moving, can't sit down for long, have to be checking the e-mails again....have to do some laundry....have to get dinner going before Mary Beth gets home from work...got to check the e-mails again after dinner.....seven days a week.....keep going. Run and check the mail at the post office box. There is a war going on...got to push harder....got to do more to stop the war.

But now it is snowing. I find myself wanting to stand by the window and watch the flakes take their time falling to the ground. They are in no hurry. They don't particularly care where they land. They seem to be enjoying their brief moment of flight through this life. The snow knows nothing about a war and a Bush presidency.

I look out the window and the road has changed from black top to white. It is amazing the power of nature. It can change the color of a road in minutes. But the humans will soon run the noisy gas-hogging snow plows through trying to change the color of the road back to black. For a little while the world slows down, almost stops. I don't want to miss that moment. Let me run back to the window.