Just Enough to be Pretty

I heard it was coming--the season's first snow. I didn't get too concerned with it all until I saw the ominous "3-5 inches" splashed across the Southern Jersey region for Friday/Saturday. This would not do.

I've said before in other posts that snow=difficulty in running, change in plans for work, the minor feeling of being trapped inside with no way to escape, hazards if I must drive=nothing good!

I was off yesterday (use it or lose it time) and took Solomon for a long walk. At one point a flake fell, then another. I pointed this out to Solomon who did not seem to care or see the random falling flakes. 

We reached a certain point on our walk and I looked into the distance, seeing something that took a few seconds to understand. It was heavy falling snow, white sheets of snow...and I realized that it had not yet reached us...so we stood there waiting for a few seconds until it began to fall on us with it's drenching white fury. First "real" snowfall. In the moment, I did not mind it. 

Solomon looked around and started to "get it"="Oh, this stuff!" We walked slowly towards home. I spent the next hour in my window seat reading, the snow now ended, me praying that was it. 

When I woke up there was nary a flake to be seen. Until I took the dog out to go potty=spotty sleety wet freezing rain stuff. Urgh. Not quite snow but not quite rain. I did my devotions and by the time I'd laced up my running shoes and began my 7 mile journey it was indeed snow...but it was fat snow, lightly falling snow...not-sticking-on-the-ground snow. The kind of snow I can deal with.

All day I kept vigil. Was it accumulating? Slightly. Could I get out if needed? Yes. Was it sticking to the roads? Didn't seem so. 

I went out to scrap my car (just in case) and brought Solomon out with me. He exploded out the door and began a frenzied run circle between our lawn and the neighbor's. He dug his face on the small accumulations on the grass and ran with might, making paw trails behind him. I made a few snowballs (it's that kind of snow) and he gave chase, remembering the fun. It made me smile.

We assumed our walk, the snow now more like salt pellets that bounced off my jacket than rain or flakes. At one point though, as we walked around a bunch of tall evergreen trees, and he went to sniff out the "neighbors", I stopped to admire (yes--admire!) the accumulated snow on the branches...It was just enough to be pretty. Not enough to bend or break branches and send me worrying about broken limbs and downed wires & resulting, "OH NO! WE DON'T HAVE POWER!?" nonsense, not enough to cover shoe tops or warrant the need for a shovel...but just enough to be pretty...to grace the green with a dusting of white for this second Advent weekend...and to make a "Grinch" like me pause and be thankful...God's beauty...