Snow has fallen gently all over our town in such beautiful soft light with the moon shining so bright tonight.
Dogs today were happily leaping and tunneling in snow. Children were videotaped making snow angels and eating the freshly fallen treats from the sky.
Done with scurrying around in the stores getting supplies, families are hunkered down together in their homes.
Yet, this same Snow fall is not at all a beautiful thing for some:
Two cars colliding due to slippery road conditions leaves a child without a parent. Neglected and abused pets trying to survive. Frostbite is setting in as people lay homeless. Emergency workers plowing our rural roads with their families praying they don't drive off a road down an unseen embankment. Lack of heat in a drafty apartment due to a fixed monthly income that is never enough.
The same exact snowfall that I am enjoying is such a stark difference for others and this humbles me and made me think.
Flashback to 1981 and I was at the St. Louis Arch enjoying everything about our school field trip: watching the movie about the building of the great Gateway to the West, riding up inside the Arch in the little pod with my classmates, and enjoying the noise all around me of tourists speaking in different languages.
But, this quickly changed: As most children do, they forget things, and I had left my red zippered cloth coin purse hanging on the back of my restroom stall door. It contained money that my family had given me for the field trip to get souvenirs and snacks.
I realized this sometime soon after leaving the restroom, but as you know, when I returned, my red coin purse was no where to be seen. Having something stolen, makes all your senses especially sensitive: I felt embarrassed, I felt violated, I felt that the noise was no longer pleasant; instead it was louder and more stressful and the entire scene changed for this 10 year old girl.
Nothing had changed at all at the St. Louis Arch; but I had changed.
So, I feel that whether it is snow or a crime, or with anything else in life, it happens to all of us as a whole. Each action or word we do or say, has an effect in the universe. We are truly all one. Which means we all have Hope..and that we are never alone.
So tonight, amazed by the beauty of the snow falling gently down around our house, I am grateful. As with everything in my life, it is only by God's Grace that I am safe and comfortable inside a home with heat.
Since life is unpredictable, I always like to think about "what ifs". If, on the converse, I am to lose everything in the future and find myself homeless in the cold winter air with no covering for my body; frostbite setting into the tips of my hands and feet, I will have Hope if I choose in those bleak times to remember that I am not alone and will never be alone.
For my current state of affairs or health is never a reflection of God's Love, God's Presence, or the absence thereof; for by His very Nature God can never be absent.
And that in itself is more breathtaking and comforting than any gorgeous Snow Fall. Hope.
As always, Look with Intention for Tiny Twinkly Lights
XO, Jen
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