I admit it, yes I still love snow

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

The biggest thing I have learned was that for people who deal with winter and, in particular, snow on a yearly basis, the weather is something like a competitor. And it’s a worthy one at that.
“It’s coming,” my neighbors told me in September, when the temperature dropped and we still hadn’t finished raking our pile of leaves
“What’s coming?”
“When the leaves all fall off the trees,” one of them said, “you’ll know. It’s out there.”
   And outside of a few minor earthquakes and hurricanes that have usually petered out by the time they get that far inland, Man keeps nature at bay. The rare snowpocalypse Mother Nature throws in for fun and which temporarily shuts down the city, is an anomaly, something to scratch your head at and then carry on as soon as the millions of cars heat up the roadways.
  One of the first things I noticed in Rhode Island was the respect, bordering on amused fear, that people have for the weather. After all these hundreds of years, Man is still fighting the elements up here. And for me, that’s what made me fall in love with the New England.
  The process is truly fascinating. Just like my neighbor said, when the leaves all drop, you know it’s time. Mother Nature is about to release her dogs in the form of bitter cold and piles of snow. And we humans have not yet really figured out how to manage that. We go out each morning with our plastic shovels and four-wheel drive and think we are at least winning a battle, even as we know we will surely lose the war.
Winter, it seems, is the sibling we playfully (or not) battle each holiday, but we still hope he will return for another round next year, which is why everyone seemed to be losing their mind when winter made its presence a little later than normal this year.
“Christmas with green grass?” we asked. “Is that all you’ve got, Winter?”
“Walking without corkers on our shoes in late-December? And I thought I knew you, Winter.”
   The rock salt waiting in the garage just seemed a little bit sad. And we put on our coats, dressed for the fight, but our opponent never showed.
But in Rhode Island, we — OK, maybe it’s just me — relish the yearly reminder that we may inhabit this world, but we don’t rule it. When snow piles against your front door or traps your car in the garage and you can’t get to work or to the mall, you are reminded that maybe things like working, money and shopping aren’t the real reasons we are here.
So the kids sled with their grandfather or take the dog running through the drifts. Moms and dads play board games. Brothers and sisters make forts in their bedroom. And the rest of the man-made world can wait.
In a sense, I fell in love with Rhode Island my first winter because even as we were snowed in and our roof was leaking, I felt alive and small at the same time. And I welcome that familiar reminder every time the first flakes fall.
No, we will not win this war. So we might as well enjoy the fight.
Source:Maine author and columnist Sarah Smiley’s BDN.  Photos credit Facebook Shares