We arrived in Montana...during a Winter Storm Advisory...It was beautiful. I am grateful that I lived in a place when I learned to drive that included snowy roads. It has been a long time and I am glad that it comes back like riding a bike. I needed it to span the somewhat treacherous trek to Troy last night.
We fell asleep last night while it came down, blanketing everything with its snowy hush. That is the thing I love most about the snow, the way that it muffles sound. I remember being a kid and walking outside and just hearing, less. And somehow that comforted me. That this silent falling snow, muffled the sound of busy lives. That everything slowed and softened. I forgot until I woke this morning and walked out onto the deck. The quiet quilting everything in fine shades of white and silence.
As I stood there watching the river flow by, listening to the geese call to each other, coffee steaming in my mug, I realized that I crave the quiet now. It is almost as if I chase the quiet now as I used to chase the chaos, with that kind of vigor. I could spend all day in my bed, a warm beverage, a book, watching snow fall on cedars. Perhaps writing something worth reading. I guess that is what I really love about the snow, the permission it grants all to slow down, stop even. Nothing to do, nowhere to go. Just live in the moment and appreciate the amazing show nature performs seemingly without effort.
As I was driving here last night, I found myself in awe that the simple dropping from 33 to 32 changed pesky rain into the beauty that flurried onto my windshield. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for snow. And like so often happens as I age, I fall in love again with something that before was not beloved or even really appreciated. The wisdom of time and age helping me to see that I have spent the bulk of my life missing the point entirely.
Last night my daughter and I sang Taylor Swift songs as we trekked through the falling snow as we made our way across Washington, Idaho and into Montana. We watched it stop and start and pelt us in the eyes when we got out of the car to grab snacks. We laughed when she nailed me in the back of the head with a snowball...snow inviting me to be a much more playful version of myself than is usually found. Snow invites us all to be child like again, to wonder, to unhurry, to just be in the moment and enjoy the view.
So that is how I am spending my morning, enjoying the view. Grateful to be here, warm and safe on the edge of a Montana river, watching snow fall on giant pines. And for now, there is nowhere else I would rather be.
