Snow, Snow Glorious Snow!

October 10, 2020 by  
Filed under Humor, Stories

By Liz Cowen Furman –

We live in the mountains above Denver, Colorado. We often have big snows, especially in March. One year, we had the daddy of all storms, one of those historic six and a half foot heavy wet snow storms.

Our three boys were in elementary school and the school was closed for a whole week. In Colorado that almost never happens!

The storm was so big, the weather guys saw it coming and predicted its arrival way in advance. We, being very scout like, went to the grocery store to stock up on provisions. Even shopping was fun as there was an air of excitement of the coming blizzard. Everyone was shopping for supplies. Many of the shelves were empty. We bought lots of food we could cook on the wood burning stove and eat without cooking just in case. And of course baking supplies.

Then it hit.

Unshoveled decks and roofs were collapsing all over town under the incredible weight of the heavy spring snow. Trees snapped and power lines were down.

Miraculously, we lost power for only a few hours the first day. Others went without for more than seven.

That glorious week holds some of my fondest memories of my children’s early years. We made snow ice cream (several times). We took clothes baskets outside and used them to make snow blocks, then stacked the blocks into an igloo. Our entire family, dogs and all crawled in to play cards by lantern light. We went sledding (of course), skiing, snow shoeing and even jumped off the wall into the snow drifts then crawled out. We made snow men (and women) that looked like us. Even a snow ball fight or two ensued battled behind snow walls.

We trudged to neighbors houses to offer our freshly baked cookies then sat by wood burning stoves drinking hot chocolate and eating s’mores while we warmed up. We watched movies and played Dominoes and Parcheesi. Bliss beyond words. Then we dug out!

Several of us able bodied neighbors and our kids went digging driveways and shaping paths from houses to garages, especially for our elderly neighbors. It really felt like a community.

There were so many times during the storm when neighbors helped each other out. A dear friend, just weeks before the storm, had given me a little plaque that read: Sometimes He calms the storm; sometimes he lets the storm rage and calms His child.

The new plaque, which I loved, sat right above my kitchen sink and almost every day I would read it and be reminded of something. One morning I thought, as I looked out the window at the group of snow shovel toting residents, how great it is that He uses His kids in each other’s lives to bring comfort and help.

Another day, as I watched the snow swirl and drift with the incredible force of the wind I was reminded that every storm we encounter in our lives whether emotional, physical or actual weather related, He controls. He can calm or let rage as He determines necessary. But the best thought of all came to me one morning as I was reading in the book of John. He can calm His child no matter what is happening around her, I found great comfort in that one.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27

About Liz Cowen Furman

Liz is an author, artist, encourager, mentor, teacher and popular speaker. However, her most important job is as mother to her three teen-aged boys and being a support to her husband, Appellate Court Judge, Dave Furman. All of whom give her much fodder for her writing and speaking (with permission of course). Find out more at www.lizcowenfurman.com
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Comments

2 Responses to “Snow, Snow Glorious Snow!”
  1. Hally Franz says:

    Wonderful memories and lessons about the nature of storms! Thanks, Liz!

    • Hey Hally! Thanks. When I wrote this one for March I thought there would still be snow. But we have been having such amazing spring weather…so happy. Snow is good. Right now spring is better! :0)

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