Me and My Shadow

When I was a child and snow lingered on the ground longer than one would expect, my mother would say it was “waiting for more snow.” My small city received light snow Sunday night, and on Monday morning the ground was white. But it was one of those very light snows that should have disappeared the next day and it didn’t. It lingered, and it still lingered on Thursday morning, and sure enough it was waiting for more snow – and here it is. Snow falls as I type this blog post. The kerosene fire is toasty and lunch is over. What did I eat on this snowy day, you ask … salad greens (romaine and spring mix) topped with “Firehouse” chili sprinkled with red pepper flakes and grated jalapeño cheese, and some buttermilk ranch dressing to top it off. Was it good, you ask. Oh yeah!

For today I’m reaching back decades to a diary entry I wrote about me and my dog Shadow on a snowy day in a long ago winter.

Excerpt from a diary…

It’s sometime after midday and it’s snowing like it plans to snow forever. I’m standing in the backyard facing west, facing the back of the house. I’m looking across the back yard, which is white now, and the house, white roof, and beyond; the street, more white – white flakes falling, millions and billions and billions of billions – and that’s only a single second’s worth. Mind boggling. And I’m standing there still, in my parka with the hood up so I’m looking out through this – hole, it’s like a porthole, and I’m inside looking out at the world. The flakes are hitting my hood just an insulated inch from my ears. The world is quiet, not much sound, except the snowflakes hitting the hood of my coat, and it sounds like – tat, tat tat tat, tat tat ... these tiny hard frozen things hitting the hood of my coat. Shadow is running around, and rooting around (how come her nose doesn’t get frostbite?) and rolling over in the snow. My hands are cold and hurting inside my gloves, my feet are cold and hurting, the rest of me is warm. I’m trying to – this is hard to describe – experience the pain. Feel it thoroughly; know it. And I can close my eyes – tat tat tat, no other sound, very quiet. Shadow and the snow are the only moving objects in my universe. Of course there’s me. I move, or rather I can if I want to. So maybe there are three moving things in the universe – Shadow, the snow, and me. I’m not sure about me. And as I stand there, what occurs to me is this: snow is no big deal, but snowing is terrific. You have to experience it, not just watch it. Bundle up, go out into a blizzard, and just stand still and listen to the silence of the world. It takes a while. Eventually you hear it.