The Verdict Is In

It is clear that the snow-season has arrived. And it is not likely to go away soon. Trees are laden with white fluffy clumps. The temperature is below zero. Cars move with caution (at least most of them).

I remember in my younger adult years how excited I was when enough snow fell that I could play outside in it. Skiing, snowshoeing, sledding down big hills. And flopping down in an undisturbed place and making snow angels - even if it meant getting snow down my neck and my boots. Brrrrr . . . !

It's not like life in San Diego or Costa Rica. Instead, the seasons here are clearly marked by change. I reflect upon my own life asking whether I live out of a Midwestern pattern of changes or in a perpetual springtime. I would say the changing pattern of seasons describes my life.
How about your life? Too often we think a good life consists of stable periods marked by temporary transitions. Normal is living on one big flat-topped mesa - and to get to another mesa requires a lot of vigorous effort.

I'd rather think of life as a process of continual and unexpected changes. I invite a few of those changes. But most of the changes in my life seem to pop up out of nowhere. I never expected to teach poetry-making or be a writer. Photography was just something that everyone did when they traveled somewhere. Nor did I think I would travel so extensively over five continents, see icebergs up close, or round Cape Horn.

And every bit of it has changed me. Just like snow transforms my summer garden into a fairyland.

I watch the snow fall outside and reminded of a cat who once owned the house in which we lived. We used to let him outdoors - before we decided the practice was neither healthy for him nor for the birds and chipmunks. When it would rain, he would look out the front door. His dissatisfaction was quite evident Then he would  go look out the back door to see it was raining there too. No such luck.

I have had the same feeling this past week - wanting to check if there is snow both in the front and the back.

For right now, the verdict is in. Snow is falling everywhere outside. It is seriously winter.