The word of the day is thankful, and today everyone will make the rounds with their friends and tell them what they’re thankful for. Of course, we are thankful all the time, we just get busy and don’t always say it and don’t always consciously think it. Today is a day to stop being so busy and to think and to say thank you.
There isn’t enough paper and ink to list the things for
which I am thankful, but I asked myself today, isn’t there just one thing, one
extraordinary thing? And of course, the
answer was a resounding yes, and the word in my mind was “snow.”
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| The beauty of snow while in pursuit of Maine. |
Yes, snow. I am so
thankful for snow. I’m thankful for its
grace as it gently glides down from the sky because that kind of grace makes my
heart sing and reminds me that beauty is always there if I look. I’m thankful for snow's uniqueness. Not one snowflake--not one!--is the same as
any other, and this reminds me of human beings, how precious we all are. I’m thankful for the cold of the snow because
the cold can do so many wonderful things.
The cold can calm fiery and angry emotions. The cold can make us wise by teaching us to
save good things in the warm weather because the cold knows how much that will
be appreciated someday. I’m thankful for
the hard work that snow causes. It makes
me shovel for hours, and I sing while I shovel and the shoveling causes pain
and exhaustion, which leads to a wonderful hot bath.
So many things about snow.
Purity, cleanliness, newness, decoration, water metamorphosis. But maybe the best thing--the best thing--is
all the wonderful tracks left by all the animals who come to visit my house
every single day--every single day. And
I don’t usually even know they’re there.
But the snow tells me. The snow
says, “Oh, yes, today the squirrels were busy and the birds were hopping and
two hares came by and deer tried to get into the bird feeder, and coyotes are
roaming . . . Every day they come to my
house, and I’m so thankful for their silent presence.
Life is there. It’s
always there. He who hath ears, let him hear.
