I awoke to snow this time last week.
I didn’t really expect it. Any of it, actually. They’d said earlier in the week that it would snow, but snow is rare in Atlanta in December – and often not in our winter at all. But, it actually had snowed on Friday, enough for schools to close early and traffic patterns to change.
Later, during the night, I heard the melting snow draining through the gutters and figured I would awaken to slush in the morning. Instead, it was snowing…that beautiful snow that comes down like lace and rests on the ground to gather into silent whiteness. The kind you want to go out and walk in because it isn’t being carried by a cold wind. The kind that just enjoys the quiet.
Once again, a walk through Briarlake Forest Park was the path taken. Where autumn had been in beautiful transition just a week before, the trees and leaves were now bedecked in snow-lace. Beech leaves gave flickers of light brown and the pines added a weaving of green. I hoped to see one of the deer that have come into the neighborhood, but that was not part of the silence for that morning. But truly, it was magical and beautiful.
Walking back, we saw other forms of snow joy – sled tracks, snowmen, children playing outside, more people out walking. Yes, it was just enough snow to enjoy…enough snow to cause us all to change our plans and take a moment to do something spontaneous and take it all in. The city didn’t stop for a week (thankfully), as the streets were quickly clear.
But what a gift to stop for a moment.
