Snow Day

I HATE winter. I TRY to focus on Ecclesiastes and the Scripture that says: “…there is a time to live and a time to die…” and trust me, in the cold of winter, I feel dead! Yet all I can think about when I look out and see the white blanket and wind lifting the flakes and shifting the landscape, is I HATE WINTER!

I long for summer and long, hot days of sunshine and swimming and even yard work. I may change my tone a bit by the end of September, with temperatures above 90-100 every day, but only in the hopes of a brief reprieve, not an all out assault on my sunshine and warmth.

Having lived in Alaska and Colorado and Maryland at different points in my life I thought I had wisely chosen to leave behind the winters of my youth. Instead, I find myself in Oklahoma, in February, amidst the pending ice-age. What happened to “global warming”? I don’t understand! Did I start to take for granted the unseasonable warmth of January, 2006?

I know there are those of you who laugh with glee at the site of snow and immediately run to the yard to make your “snow-angels” and snowmen and snow-ice-cream (Alaskan favorite). We all laugh, with glee, at the child in “A Christmas Story”; he gets completely dressed and OVERdressed to go outside in the cold…only to realize he has to use the restroom! I’m just saying: “I HATE WINTER!” No offense, but honestly, where’s the fun in driving down a road and sliding off this road? Yes, I realize that’s what many people try to do even on the CLEAREST days in their “racecar” dreams, but I shake and shudder with fear at each person flying by me, without thinking of anything but their slippery destination.

I realize much of my disdain relates to my desire to GO, GO, GO! I’m perfectly happy on weekday, SNOW DAYS! Hey, if I can get a day off work, even if it means enduring hours of mindless television programming, or try a new recipe while stranded…I’m all for it. But don’t steal my weekend.

I wonder if perhaps, in my bliss of GOING, if I am in fact, RUNNING from something I’m called to meditate on or study. What is God trying to teach me today? My immediate thoughts are of “Be still…..” Usually I flip the page there. We all know the ending; “…and KNOW that I am God.” If I don’t even stop and finish the teaching, I get to keep RE-LEARNING and re-testing on this aspect.

Today I will try to be still and KNOW that He is God. Today, I will TRY to not focus on my “escape” and the roads being cleared timely, instead I will TRY to focus on hearing what God wants to speak to me in silence, in quiet. I’ll let you know how that works out!