This past week parts of the northeast experienced a true blizzard, high winds and between 15 “and 24” of the white stuff. It sure looks pretty, but for me, it is anything but. Snow belongs on the ski slopes period. People who say they love snow probably do not have teen age drivers, or kids who must go to daycare, or rear wheel drive. People who can probably fly instead of slip slop and slide all over the place probably love it. People who can pick up pounds of snow and put it here not there so someone else can walk into their house, or cross the street or take their pup for a necessary walk couldn’t possibly like it. Poor Fido. The purpose of snow eludes me. Rain will do just fine.
There are so many emotions we feel when we are forced to stay indoors and leave the car in the garage and make the most of it. For a while it might feel great. Relief that no one else is doing anything really productive, so why should you!
Often a strong feeling of guilt sits side by side with relief This is truer for people who are work driven or workaholics.This is their reason for being. We are not being productive. It does not matter if the internet is down, if the tides are up and the roads are icy. We should be doing something.
By feeling non-productive we can become depressed if this lockdown goes on for too long. We are isolated, the sun is gone, everything is grey. If someone is prone to depression and seasonal mood swings, a snowstorm sure is not helpful. There can also be anxiety. If we cannot afford to miss those work hours. If our job, paid or not, is taking care of someone in need and snow is an obstacle, it becomes a heavy burden or worse. We feel helpless and angry! Psychotherapy could be one answer.
Snow days excite kids. We remember those days with nostalgia. This is before snow turns brown and yellow and/or there’s too much of it. All in all, I feel that snow is my enemy, that my most profound feeling about snow is that we can never be friends. My heart sinks when I hear that forecast. This year my heart is somewhere down in my belly!! I have friends whose children with no real knowledge of how to drive on an icy road, drove themselves into a tree or worse. Kids as we know, feel invincible, will take the car keys. and are gone from our lives in a horrible instant. Snow days, in truth. are not fun days, The shoveling the stuck car, the electric out. It is pretty and maybe sometimes romantic, but for my part, it is just unnecessary.
My husband reminded me that snow gives us water in Spring and thinks I am selfish. Maybe so, but, I just hate snow!!