Wednesday Wonder

Snow day!!

Busses are cancelled, the world is covered in a blanket of fresh white and things feel cozy.

Funny how that phrase can conjure up different thoughts, feelings and memories for us. What a snow day means changes as we age. This morning all I could think of was how lucky I am to have the flexibility in where I work. I am typing this looking out my home office window. And yes, it is still snowing.

Not everyone has the same options. When suddenly faced with a child home from school for the day, the fact that I lived in a manse where the church office also resided didn’t have me wondering how to make it work like some of my peers. Being forced to take a day off work is not easy when these days hit unexpectedly.

I grew up in a rural area. I don’t remember all that many snow days. The busses seemed to run unless it was an ice storm. That was the Ottawa Valley more decades ago than I care to mention. But even when the busses were not running, I did not get to sleep in and stay home.

My dad was a high school teacher. Yes, at the high school I attended. That is a story for another time. Because my dad was a teacher, he still had to go to school when the busses didn’t run. Schools were not automatically closed too. When I was in elementary school many of the students walked as it was situated in the village. So, there was often students who would attend. My dad would drop me off on those days. And then pick me up at the end of the day. Cue pouting.

When I was in high school, the same rule applied. Get up, get ready and go to school with dad. Now, the thing you need to know about my high school: literally every student was bussed. This school sat in the middle of a field between three small villages. If you walked to the far end of the track you could chat with the cows across the fence. So, when busses were cancelled, there were not going to be any students at all. But dad still had to go in until the official word to close for the day came. He figured I could go too. Work in the library, get extra help if I needed it. That sort of thing. Or so he said. As a teenager, I figured he just wanted to make my life difficult. Cue more pouting.

My ‘favourite’ memory of a snow day in high school was the one where I argued long and hard against having to go only to be told that I could spend the day in the library working on an upcoming paper and no one would bother me. I would have all the resources to myself for the day. Guess which teacher didn’t bother coming to work that day? Yep, the librarian. Library was locked and I sat in the auditorium trying to find things to keep me occupied until I could go home.

Funny story, when my sister, who is five and a half years younger than me, was in high school, she never had to go to school on a snow day.

Looking back, while I still would have preferred to stay in my pjs and read a novel or watch tv, getting up and being at school wasn’t a bad thing. I did usually get some homework done, that I know I would not have done sitting at home. I also had a chance to get one on one time with teachers if I wanted it.

There is something about sitting alone in a great big room that quiets the mind and allows us to think more deeply. Snow days in high school gave me those opportunities. I could think about creative things that jam packed days didn’t have room for. Maybe my desire to write started there. I often did just that as I sat and waited.

At the time, I wasn’t looking for God’s presence the way I tend to do so now. But I know God was in those moments. Snow days can bring a sense of peacefulness. The fresh snow piled outside makes things feel quiet and cozy. For me, God is often in those moments.

As I gaze out my window now, the snow is still falling, but what I can really see is how that snow is sitting on individual branches. The trees look differently covered in a cloak of snow rather than the more barren leafless state of late fall. There is a feeling of hope and peace in the picture framed by my window. We can all use a little hope and peace this time of year.

Snow day!