Sometimes life feels a bit like snow.

Sometimes life feels a bit like snow. At times it can be light and fluffy. Other times it can feel sharp and biting. It’s beautiful when it is a freshly fallen pristine white. The glimmer is mesmerizing when the sun glistens off its surface. And the brown mushy mixture formed by salt and dirt as it melts is just messy.

I love it when the world looks like a shaken snow globe. Light fluffy flakes float down all around me, and I just want to do a little twirl. It feels as though there should be a musical cue playing in the background. Sometimes in life, I feel like all is right in the world. Life can feel light and fun and picturesque. 

The reality of snow is that it is not always light and fluffy. Sometimes, it comes down like little sleeting pellets or tiny pieces of ice. The snow can actually hurt when it comes into contact with one’s skin. When the snow is like this, the temperatures seem to be lower and the world a colder place. Recently, I’ve felt a bit of the cold sharpness that life can bring. It’s hurtful to come into contact with death, childhood cancer, and unexplained traumatic illness. 

There is nothing like fresh fallen snow. As an adult, I want to enjoy the beauty of a white world from inside my warm house. As a child, I wanted to lie down and make a snow angel in it. The world looks fresh and new, like a blank slate. In life we get a glimpse of a fresh start at the new year, when a baby is born, or the start of a new relationship or career.  It’s wonderful to feel a glimmer of hope that glistens from the possibility of what’s possible. 

The truth is that snow is not meant to stay. As the world warms up and seasons change, the snow gets a bit messy. I do not enjoy slogging through the brown mush of melted snow. It is the very evidence of change happening before me. The ground will be blessed by the moisture, and eventually the warmth of spring will come, but the messiness of the moment is inconvenient and uncomfortable. I don’t always love change and sometimes the details of life in process are messy. I admit that I’d like to skip the slogging-through stage. Yet, I can say that in all of my years of life Spring has never failed to come and everything has always worked out as it should.

Many people have a love-hate relationship with snow. And I would say, “That’s life.”