The Weather Channel announces blizzard conditions tonight over all of the Midwest and up the East Coast. For those of us who are competitive weather watchers, tonight and tomorrow are the nights. All we need to do is keep Jim Cantore in our sites, and the remote positioned on the Weather Channel and let the blast begin.
This week will be the span of winter experience for me, and we will see how it plays out. Last weekend, a family from the church here in Michigan kindly invited us to their home in the northern tip of the state. From the time we drove up the drive to the peaked chalet on a frozen lake until I awoke to eight inches of new powder on top of the huge amount of snow already on the ground, I knew it would be special.
We tooled through the idyllic town of Victorian homes with icicles hanging up across their entire roof lines. Some houses had ice formations that harkened my memory to cave stalactites. Along with Mack and Marilyn, Roger and I strapped on our new snow shoes and hiked on dunes overlooking Lake Michigan. At one point, we stopped at a view of Lake Michigan. Marilyn joked that we would not be sitting on the bench. I finally caught the joke that we were standing on top of the bench buried in the white stuff. I would have never known.
We came back “down south” to the Detroit area to find a blizzard on the way. We are expected to get up to 16 inches tonight alone. My Old Faithful, The Weather Channel, is showing pictures of Chicago who is playing host to the storm expected to knock at my door as I sleep. The airport is shut down and interstates are at a standstill.
A visit to the local food and stuff super center made me feel as though I were entering the stadium for the Super Bowl. People stood in line, pushed a little in anticipation, and loaded their buggies. I was tickled to see spontaneous displays of essentials all in a row: beer, wine, chips, salsa, and chocolate milk.
Supermarket rushes with snow in the forecast are not new to me. I can remember many times seeing most of everyone I knew in Franklin, Tennessee at the same time, buying the last of Kroger’s bread and milk. Note to all Michiganders in the South --- you may no longer harass Southerners for hoarding supplies at the winter forecast. I now know you do it too.
Weather – such a funny phenomenon where perspective is complete reality. “Up North” in the tippy top of Michigan, snow is a welcome adventure. The roads are cleared immediately. Ski resorts hear snowflakes falling to the sound of “cha-ching.” Townspeople and visitors speak of snow in excitable voices, as if a rock star were expected in town. Snow up there takes a pristine setting and makes it downright idyllic – and full of adventure.
Here in the city – we don’t know if we are going to be able to plow out of the neighborhood until the weekend. Businesses will close, power outages are imminent, and emergency conditions will certainly exist. One wonders. Snow, the same substance creates delight and disaster in the same swoop.
I think of beach holidays, where we want nothing more than hot, dry weather. Farmers who work in the fields pray for rain to relieve their parched crops, and construction workers who swelter in the heat and hope for a cool day.
Perspective. I think of how many issues and occurrences in life are bane for one and blessings for others. A young couple finds out they have the much hoped for and anticipated baby on the way, who will be born on the same day as another to the family with many children and unemployed parents who tremble at the thought of how they will feed their entire brood. Both will be blessed with babies, but the perspective of hard times complicates the matter for one family.
In today’s world, reality dictates that jobs will relocate; I remember the news that, as a young adult, I had the opportunity to move to Tennessee. I was thrilled at the adventure. Later in life, when similar news came, my perspectives changed and moving did not look as enticing.
When we make judgments on issues and situations, sometimes we need to take a deep breath and consider perspective. Is our situation so dire? Sometimes a dire situation is just that, and at others, we simply need to adjust perspective and consider the possibilities.
In other words: Do we feel powder under our snow shoes or slush under our tires?
Stay safe everyone, tonight is going to be harrowing for many. And, Elise ---- I will be on pins and needles until you get home from your late class tonight.
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