And Then It Snowed

January 23, 2016

Written by Marykate O’Malley, mother of three wonderful children, in snowy Gladwyne, Pa

And then it snowed. 3 months worth in one 24 hour block. Houses dotting the street like gingerbread homes, roofs and eaves blanketed in generous white frosting. Fair isle sweaters and hot cocoa lavished with whipped cream and marshmallows. Shovels, and sleds. Boots and ski gloves retrieved from the backs of closets, snow pants, and ski masks. Snow angels, and snowmen, drifts up to your knees. Cookies, banana bread, french toast, movies and popcorn. Forts and tunnels, fires and fires and fires in the fireplace. Silence, and stillness, a deer dashes across the back yard leaping through the snow. A moment and she is gone. Like this day. Quiet and beautiful, then tucked away.

My mom used to make us pizza and my brothers would head out into the neighborhood to shovel walks. Me by the fire, a book cradled in my lap, a cat curled at my feet. Like my youngest, her nose buried between the folds of the cover of a book. This is how life moves. I take the pizza from the oven and warm boots by the fireplace. Children leave, and return, children grow. New children build snowmen, eat pizza, shovel walks.

Snow falls. Nature asks us to pause, and slow. And drink in her glorious goodness.