Snow Days
I have such fond memories of “snow days” – days when all non-essential activities were cancelled – both from my own childhood and from rearing my own children. If you are among the lucky ones who have gotten to stay home on a snow day, you, too, may have fond memories of sleeping late, building a snowman, making snow angels, throwing snow balls from a snow fort, coming inside to drink hot chocolate and warming up by a fire or furnace, doing puzzles, reading a book, making soup, or simply enjoying the gift of a day you don’t have to be anywhere or do anything in particular. After playing outside, my kids and I would typically gather round the big dining room table to build entire Lego cities and then snuggle up to watch our favorite movies. Good times.
Snow days are great if you get to stay home. However, if you work in healthcare, or clearing the roads, or as a first responder, or in any number of jobs that don’t stop in the face of inclement weather, or if you lack adequate shelter or heat or clothing or food, snow days are among the most brutal days you face. You get up earlier and stay up later, sometimes not sleeping at all. You fight the elements to stay warm and dry. You fight simply to survive. Hard times.
It is with awareness of these two very different experiences, in the face of a winter storm that could cover the city with a foot or more of snow along with treacherous ice that I consider the season of Christmastide we are in. Homes have been decorated; gifts have been given. Candles remain lit, and we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Light of the World. So, too, do our brothers and sisters of other faiths celebrate light, both figurative and literal, overcoming the darkness through their observances of Diwali, Yule, Hanukkah, and Bodhi Day, among others.
Many of us, all together now and through the ages, are unified in our longing for and celebrating light. Our holy religious festivals and our private acts of spirituality align in celebration and longing, in good times and hard times, as all of us navigate dark days, cold days, snow days. I don’t know about you, but something about this knowledge of alignment in the time of darkness brings me a sense of comfort. We are all in this together, and we have one another.
God of light, remind us of what we have in common. Lead us to share from our abundance in the good times. Lead us to help one another in the hard times. Shine in us and through us in the time of darkness. Amen.
Roxanne is a member of Peace Church who hates being cold and therefore practices the annual spiritual discipline of looking for things to appreciate about wintertime. Her husband, however, delights in the cold and looks forward to all snow days.