Friday, December 3, 2010

Reverb 10: Moment

December 3 Moment

Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

Wow. What a question. How do I even begin to answer this? How many moments this year did I feel alive? Hundreds? Thousands? Who knows.

I can think of one thing, though. It happens every year.

I feel so alive during the first snow of the season. It's been crisply autumn for a while, and when you walk outside you smell the dying leaves (which are delightfully crunchy), and there's that magical October sort of feeling in the air...and then I smell it: snow. I can smell it before it comes; sometimes I can smell it before it's even visible on the horizon. I can't explain it. I can't even describe it. It smells like...snow. Maybe it's my sixth sense.

I feel alive when I step outside and smell that smell, and feel a little bit of a bite as the wind hits my cheeks, nose, and ears. I feel alive when I feel snowflakes first begin to fall, palms outstretched. I love the way the sunlight turns slightly blue, and the mountains barely show for all the snow, the white and gray blending into the cloudy sky.

Then, I feel alive at dusk when the streetlights and the setting sun reflect off of the crystals and everything sparkles. I feel alive, and I feel like there are still beautiful things in this world, and most importantly, I feel that God loves me and maybe this first snow is just for me, to breathe new life into my body and soul before my world plunges into deep winter, bringing darkness with it.

2 comments:

magnolia said...

wow. this makes snow sound gorgeous, transcendent, peaceful, and settling.

i have to say, snow in DC is usually gray, slushy, and panic-inducing, turning smart, capable people into fear-paralyzed morons. i hate it when it snows around here. unless i somehow have the freedom to stay inside and watch it. in that case, i love every minute of it...

Anna W said...

It's only awesome like this when it first snows. Then it gets dirty. And yes, people driving in snow turn into morons, I totally agree. My favorites? The guys who think they have mad snow-driving skills, so they act like there's nothing on the ground at all. Idiots.