It’s rain, but it could be snow. What has happened to winter? Weather reporters offer up forecasts of 60s in December as though they are holiday gifts. Not for me. Winter is like interval training, offering a brief steepness in slope before easing us into spring.

I know the all the complaints – the unpleasantness of shivering, icy roads, shoveling snow, traffic delays. Well, I say let’s have it! In these latitudes and in these times winter may be one of the few forces that slow us and drive us toward one another.

Christmas as a religious holiday need not concern itself with how white the day may be. It began in regions that know not snow. But for most of us it is also a time of noticing one another, being grateful, sated by Thanksgiving, reflective about the New Year.

Snow ushers in the muted tones of kind, cordial voices. It can even slow the impulse to move about in our machines. Even the Salvation Army bells ring all the truer in snowfall. Should others need your company, snow provides rationale for being with them, helping them. 

So I say let’s welcome snow.