Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Thoughts on snow in Colorado, (or anywhere else)

There is something about snow that moves a certain melancholy feeling deep inside of me. This quote from Damien Echols puts it into perspective, at least for me.

“I miss the snow. I miss looking at it, walking in it, tasting it. I used to love those days when it was so cold everyone else would be tucked away inside trying to stay warm. I would be the only one out walking, so I could look across the fields and see miles of snow without a single footprint in it. It would be completely silent - no cars, no birds singing, no doors slamming. Just silence and snow.” 

DURANGO, CO

GEORGETOWN, CO

CORTEZ, CO

If you grew up around hard winters, where the snow fell in feet instead of in traces, you may have grown weary of having to deal with the shoveling and the slush and the freezing temperatures. As with all things, too much of anything can get old and cumbersome. Having spent many years along the Gulf coast, I came to dread the beginning of Hurricane season, not so much because of the fear of one of Mother Nature’s most destructive forces, but because I knew for the next six months or so, every time a slight disturbance developed in the Atlantic or Gulf, a certain unease would resonate through the community until the threat would dissipate.
Winter storms can create the same anxiety. So your feelings toward snow may be more like Carl Reiner’s.

 A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”

Whether you feel like Mr. Echols or Mr. Reiner, the next time you’re out in fresh snow, yet untouched by human influence, try to look at it as if you were a kid experiencing it for the first time. Snow can be truly amazing with the right perspective.


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