Well, over the course of yesterday and last night, we accumulated about an inch and a half of snow. This is why winter is tied with summer for my second favorite season. It’s currently snowing lightly outside. Our area has a predicted accumulation of 1-2 more inches over the course of the day, and a projected 3-5 inches for tonight. And while I don’t currently have my snow pants and snow boots with me (they’re still in storage), I am thrilled to be able to write today with the beautiful image of snow covering the branches of trees to the back of my condo.
My partner says that he thinks I’ve conjured the snow. He doesn’t know that some of my new poems include snow/ice/winter themes. I have loved the snow since I was a kid, and while I generally hate being cold, there’s something that happens in my body when I’m in the snow that makes me impervious to the cold. It’s like I know it’s cold, but I don’t really feel or notice it. Even this morning, when I went outside in slippers, pajamas, and a simple coat to take pictures of the white flurries, I didn’t notice the cold until I got back inside. My mother and my grandmother both used to call me a “daughter of winter” because I would stay outside in the snow for hours and hours at a time. It didn’t matter how wet or cold I was, if there was snow outside, I was in it.
This love of snow has lasted throughout my adulthood. And now that I have the ability to buy higher quality snow boots and snow pants, I feel like I enjoy the snow even more. It’s part of me. It’s in my body somehow. Maybe it’s something mystical, or maybe it’s that snow is water and water holds memory and humans are mostly made up of water, so it’s possible that my body could be literally made of snow, but there’s just something about the snow and ice that has always made me feel safe, seen, and connected to the earth.
Yesterday I received feedback on my first packet of the semester from my mentor. She gave me some amazing ideas and things to consider for my second packet, and to consider for the completion of this manuscript. So my plan this weekend is to sit with her notes and not only revise my first packet even more, but to also keep revising what I’ve begun for my second packet. I intend to read a lot this weekend. I intend to write a lot this weekend. And I intend to inhale the snow this weekend. To be out in it as much as I can be, to take pictures, to take video, to listen to its quiet and its serene. I haven’t been in the snow since January/February of 2019, when I was still married to my ex. We both enjoyed the snow and it was one of the only things we could do together that actually felt like it brought is closer.
Last year, there was no snow. I could have driven to the mountain for it, but my car is not snow and ice friendly, and I was worried I would get myself stuck. 2020 was a year without snow for me, and I think I was meant to purge the connection with snow to my ex. Now I can enjoy it as something uniquely me, something that my body feels. I’m excited for this weekend to bring me this soft quiet.
