Snow is a fantastic miracle
When I was child, snow was magic. Now snow, in my region of the PNW, is a distant memory.
We do still occasionally have flakes fall on us, but it’s less and less every year as the planet warms. It’s much more than a loss of White Christmas or Winter Wonderland. It’s a loss that present and future generations cannot begin to comprehend.
Snow is quieting, meditative, beautifying, cleansing, and crystalline. Snow shows us that tiny flakes can combine to stop traffic, and nourish the mountains with life-giving snow pack. Snow gives life, and provides fun. It slows people down and immerses them in sensation and alertness.
Snow and ice shaped our childhood. From learning to skate on the neighbor’s pond, to catching snowflakes on the tongue, it was a pure and magical time we entirely took for granted. Snow days taught us more than whatever lessons the schools had scheduled for that day.
The taste, crunch, and feel of snow and ice cannot be replicated in any other way than actually experiencing it. Icicles dangling from a roof, or sparkling diamond blankets of white are too lovely for words. Nor can the excitement for children and even pets ever be conveyed without the crystalline power of cold to wake us up.
There is a down side, of course, but most moments in snow are precious and worthy of preservation.
Solastalgia and Snow
Place and the persistence of memory combine to make solastalgia a very real phenomena of climate anxiety, grief, and displacement.
Lakes and streams here have not frozen for decades. It is a strange thing to miss something that isn’t here, and yet it is so very real. Local lore tells us that several cars driven across ice lay like frozen secrets at the bottom of many area lakes. Skating was rare, but it did happen. When I grew up, we had a handful of days below zero — not just below freezing — on more than one occasion. We have not seen that happen in recent years.
Much was made in recent reports of the snow we were scheduled to see today. There was not a single flake where I live. There are storms impacting the mid-west and east, of course, but nothing here. Where clear cuts are visible — in the foothills where loggers lurk — there is some visible snow. But that is more depressing than enchanting. There is even a dusting of snow upon those evergreens that remain, but it appears like a gauzy mirage more than a real weight or presence.
We have much climate grief work to do, but the real healing only happens when we make everyday decisions that affect the wider world. Take empowerment by taking choices that make the world better.
It’s a hot political climate and an ever-increasing Earth climate. You do make a difference when you stick together to make a blizzard of change, or participate in an avalanche of movements. Change small habits, but also participate in changing our international bad habits by having a voice and demanding more from our leaders. Especially in this crucial election year of 2024.
Everyone talks about the weather, the old joke went, but nobody does anything about it. Climate and weather are related, though, and we do affect them with every habit we have. We affect every living being with our consumption habits and our pollution, so it’s important to be mindful of every difference that we make every day that we live.
It’s painful to miss the snow, but it’s important to know we are not alone in this. Let’s notice we’re not just snowflakes, but a storm of coming change.
Stay cool.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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Photo credit: Kacper Szczechla on Unsplash
