The Prayer of a Good Day

You know it’s a good day when

last night and this morning it snowed and snowed and snowed –
somewhere round 17 inches of the stuff just kept piling up
and in the sudden sun of the late afternoon, you look outside
and there’s your neighbor with his grown son on their 4-wheelers
snow blades firmly attached, plowing out a path to your garage
so you can get your car out if you need to and you get motivated
to sweep away enough snow from your back door to make a path
to them to offer up some gooey brownies fresh and warm from the
oven and Larry teaches you how to drive the 4-wheeler and lets you
plow some snow out of the way just for fun and refuses any money
for his efforts in that sly country way of just acting like he didn’t
hear you and going about the business of being a good neighbor
and it is so wonderful it’s just about enough to make a grown girl
cry as you make your way back into the warmth of an old house
that stays warm like new ones can’t seem to, oooey-gooey brownies
in hand as you glance back over your shoulder and watch father
and son playing in the snow and helping a neighbor just cos
and suddenly you realize that you’ve just been to church and you
whisper your amen there on the steps where only God hears

Yeah, that’s when you know it’s been a good day

Snow Excuses

I want to go out

and play in the snow

make a snow angel

and take a picture

to share with you

but I have no

cell for a selfie

maybe I’ll just

stay inside

it’s cold out there

and even if I could

manage to capture

a pic with my 

vid cam and not

destroy my ’puter

in the process

you probably couldn’t

see it cos it’d be

white on white

and white on white

doesn’t show much

isn’t that why there’s

blue dye on the white

snow in the Olympics?

and I don’t have any

blue (or any other

color) dye so yeah,

I think I’ll stay inside,

’kay?

besides, there’s about

a billion snowflakes

in a cubic foot of 

snow and if I go 

outside, I’ll be a 

snow murderer,

won’t I?  as I crush

all those beautiful

flakes underfoot 

just so I can take

a picture to show you?

That doesn’t sound like

a very good reason to

murder innocent snow,

does it?

yeah, I’d better stay

inside – safer for

the snow that way

____________
Homework Hero - source for how many snowflakes in a cubic foot of snow

Snow Angels

I went to bed accompanied by
the soundless sound of snow falling
and awoke to more and more and more

Snow upon snow upon snow
dresses trees
blankets buildings
piles joyfully on fence posts

Winds blow unseen above
and branches respond
shaking off the weight
the sheer presence of
all that whiteness

Every snow day of my life
stands alongside me now

The kids making tunnels
and forts, frozen mouths
demanding hot chocolate

Sled riding and bon fires
huddled teens laughing
at the cold silliness and
joy of it all

Snow men and snow balls
and snow angels

ah, the snow angels
how bittersweet they are

the boyfriend heart of my youth
hailing from the Middle East
and never having seen snow
yet somehow knowing to make
a snowball and give it a toss
my way, wearing his joy for warmth

me showing him snow angels
a first time joy that led to
kisses wrapped in snow

I wonder if he’s seen any
angels since?  I hope so.

A Moment Between

The snow rests
on pine branches
startling in their
greenness amongst
the white

A single crow
caws his morning
news to all who
will hear

There will be a
moment when
a wind, a breeze,
a breath in time,
will unseat the snow
to its earthbound
destination
bidding its own
farewell to the
tree it graced

There was a moment
was it but yesterday?
when crows gathered
in the thousands
singing their settle-in-
for-the-night-on-a-
path-to-who-knows-
where -- there, at
the confluence of
the rivers

In between such moments
I stand and watch and listen
and am glad to be here
to see, to hear

Blessed

Snow Man Melting

I know he is a snow man because he’s got no curls – dead giveaway in the world of children to know a girl when you see one.

I ponder him across the street throughout the day yesterday as he gets smaller and smaller and wonder
          [is there science for this?  Surely.]
at his shrinking in the midst of such snow – for the snow kept coming all day yesterday – .

What makes him small?  Why does he shrink?  He isn’t melting – at least I don’t think so.

The morning, as usual, brings clarity – of a sort.  I see the snow man, shorter than yesterday in contrast to his pre-snow self – for the new fall added some inches around him and he became shorter only by being buried in the stuff of his existence, seeming to disappear from my eyes – with an amused snort, I return inside, mystery solved and all’s right with my world.

Snow Day! Snow Day!

                            I love snow days!                            

The chance they offer

to be

snuggled inside

or bundled outside

I love the risk of snow days:

Will I venture out?

It’ll be cold!

And the choices of snow days:

build a snow man?

Walk to the store?

Make snow angels?

Curl up with a good book?

Look for a good sled-riding hill?

The unexpected gift of time

expanding before me

bidding . . . 

Come – do with me as you will

And the birds in the snow-laden bushes

pop

If I am very lucky

maybe I will see

a cardinal

I’ve got plenty of time to watch

for him

The only thing I lack

is a playmate

It is Snowing

Tiffany Armstrong's place
Saturday morning

It is snowing.  

It’s  Friday, October 28, 54 days before winter officially begins, and it is snowing in the mountains.

The brief explosion of fall colors is almost past and it is snowing and I just brought in the last of the tomatoes from the three plants outside my back door.

Some may yet ripen, but the stubborn green ones will fulfill their fried-green-tomato destiny, reminding me of summer days, star-filled nights, and the sound of laughter and children running barefoot across the grass.

It is snowing.  Winter comes, like God, bidden or not bidden.

The smell of fallen leaves gives way to the smell of wet earth and cold.

It is snowing.