I love snow. I look forward to it every year, and as I mentioned in a previous post, my family celebrates the first day of snow as a very special day. Not everyone shares our opinion. In fact, every time one of us expresses our love of snow, some of our friends make a point of reminding us of the dangers and challenges snow and winter create. Frostbite, driving challenges and falls are real concerns that come with the winter season in the northeast. In spite of these concern, we still celebrate this time of year.
Saturday night, my love of winter was put to the test. My wife and I enjoyed a wonderful hockey game thanks to the gift of a couple of tickets to the game. When the game was over, we went out for a bite to eat, and a little more time to spend together on our date. I locked the car and made my way to the front door of the restaurant, but did not quite make it. In spite of a warm evening with no snow, there was still just enough black ice to catch me off guard and bring me to the ground. It was a hard fall. My hip, knee and back continue to attest to that.
As I gained my footing and limped my way inside, I reflected on the comments my friends made. I could hear them ask me, “How do you feel about winter now? It’s not so much fun when you are hurting, is it?”
I continued on into the restroom to check the bruising and to clean up a bit. The questions continued to revolve in my head. I looked into the mirror as I started to wash the parking lot dirt from my hands and thought, “Hurting is not fun, but ice is a reality of life where I choose to live. In spite of the fall, I still love winter.” I smiled, and gingerly walked back to the table to enjoy dinner with my wife.
Winter has ice, snow and cold in my corner of the world. However, summer has dehydration, sunburn, sun stroke. People fall on ice and many are restricted because of the weather, but people struggle to breathe in the heat and are often forced to stay in because of high levels of ozone. Winter, summer, and everything in between has the potential for pain and difficulty, but it also has the opportunity for joy and celebration.
Life is not safe. It is a truth that we work hard to avoid, but we ignore it to our detriment. When we believe that we can create a safe existence if we just work hard enough at our self-protection, we exchange freedom and joy for a false sense of comfort. More than just the struggles that come from the annual seasons, the seasons of life are filled with similar challenges and opportunities. We can choose to spend our days trying to be safe, or we can live our days experiencing life.
There is obviously room for wisdom and good choices, but that is not an excuse to hide from life. There is so much to experience and precious little time to experience it. There just isn’t enough room left to allow fear and negativity to consume our time. I am not going to venture out into the cold in shorts and a t-shirt, but I am also not going to lock myself inside and miss the crisp beauty of this time of year, and this time of my life.
We may not all like winter’s ice, or summer’s heat, but we can all love life, love our lives. We can face the days we are given, not with fear and avoidance, but with joy and celebration. Here, in the midst of the season where we celebrate the great love of God given to transform the world; a season where we remember Mary and Joseph who faced great adversity and the infant Christ who surrendered safety for something greater, may we find the joy, the wonder and the power of life. We may limp, tender from our falls, but we will limp joyfully forward into the future God continues to create for us.
