Fresh Snow

Welcome back snow. I’m so glad you’re here

Source: Jill Wellington on Pexels

Gratitude Entry #1: Fresh Snow

As a child, I hated the snow. I liked when it snowed for a few weeks around Christmas, but the rest of winter I spent wishing it would go away.

I live in Wisconsin where it typically snows for around six months of the year, from November until April. Sometimes, Wisconsin even gets snow as early as October and as late as May. That’s a lot of time spent wishing the weather was different!

Snow is cold and makes my skin dry. Driving becomes more challenging and dangerous. I miss the greenery in Winter. I only saw the negatives.

It wasn’t until around my sophomore year of college that I began to appreciate the beauty of freshly fallen snow.

A fresh snowfall in my old neighborhood

After moving to the city, I started walking everywhere. This slower mode of transportation gave me the time to think, look around, and appreciate all the little details I missed before in my cloud of negativity.

I noticed the way the surface of snow glimmers like diamonds when the sunlight hits it, how much the trees pop with a coat of fresh snow on them, and the way trudging through a foot of snow made me feel like an adventurer in an urban landscape.

I held my hand out and watched the individual snowflakes settle against my glove. I was amazed at the intricate designs, each one different than the last. I couldn’t believe the many feet of snow around me was made of this. I realized something.

Snow is art.

Fresh snow outside of my old workplace

I could take the bus, but then I’d be missing all this beauty. I just had to dress a little warmer, a small price to pay for being able to be surrounded by magnificence.

The next year on the first snowfall, I infected my roommates with excitement. I convinced them to come outside and make snow angels with me. We then had a snowball fight, laughing and playing like children in our snowy paradise.

Later in the season when there was enough snow, we made snowmen, challenging ourselves to outdo each other with the biggest and best snowman of all.

We began to take walks during snowstorms just for fun, oftentimes finding ourselves at the state capital which is decked out each year in bright strings of Christmas lights.

Othertimes, we would fill up mugs of hot chocolate and walk onto the snowy, icy surface of Lake Monona.

A view of the Wisconsin state capitol

Now, I wouldn’t trade the snow for any beach house or tropical climate.

While I no longer live in that same neighborhood or with those same people, I appreciate the snow now just as much as I did back then.

Welcome back snow. I’m so glad you’re here!