SNOW!!!

It can't be possible! Who gave the sky permission to shed white flakes while the trees are faithfully hanging on to their beautiful leaves and the grass is a vibrant green? It isn't even Halloween much less Thanksgiving. Can't the weather read the calendar? It's still officially fall. It is definitely NOT time for winter.

And yet, driving home from class at 10:30 at night, seeing the little white flakes drifting down gently in the soft glow of the street lights, it's easy to wax nostalgic. After all, we have all been raised with that Currier and Ives romanticism - a horse drawn sleigh in the warm glow of light spilling from a church window, a faithful dog lopping along beside the sleigh runners. The family in the sleigh is intact and happy and headed home where a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings awaits them, all steamy and delicious. Cupboards are filled with abundant harvest. Bells are jingling, Christmas is about to happen. All is right with the world.

Snow is definitely part of that scene, portrayed not as an icy monster threatening our very existence, but as an artist of beautiful landscapes against which one needs no more than a cuddly blanket and a dear heart next to you. Or snow can be part of a great adventure like in the story of Narnia - at first gentle and surprising and refreshing and quaint as the children stumble upon the lamp post with the snow sifting lightly down, and then horrible as they encounter the white witch and see all the frozen beings. But it comes out alright in the end.

Tonight, I am touched by the memories and associations, wakened by the potential for a long and white winter. I am in a good place. My world is safely scotch taped in place, cracks are mending, no immediate threats. Maybe it will be a sleigh ride year.