By Kiera Rich – KRich13@bellsouth.net
It finally happened. After waiting for 18 months, it finally snowed in Atlanta. Granted, the snow that I’m looking at out my window is definitely not the type of snow that my Colorado-native heart is used to. However, snow is snow and I’m grateful to know that Atlanta has another season besides luke-warm, warm, hot, and hotter than Heck (A tiny little suburb of hell.)
We had our first snow flakes on Thursday night. My husband took me outside to take my picture in the midst of his long-awaited proof. He thinks that having proof that it does indeed snow in Atlanta will finally put a stop to all of my whining about the weather. He is wrong. I am a recreational whiner and I do it mostly for sport. By Friday morning, we had no snow — just a grimy, slimy, wet, grey, landscape. So much for winter!
Last year (My first winter in Atlanta.) I was stunned that every time the forecasters even mentioned the word “snow”, things automatically began to close. Schools, businesses, churches, the airport. Yes, airlines were canceling flights, not because it had snowed but because it might.
If you have ever driven in Atlanta, you know the first thing that should be closed with the threat of snowy weather would be roads. Driving here reminds me a little bit of playing Mario Kart. To survive, one must be ULTRA alert at all times. So alert that every muscle is taut and blinking is a thing of the past. Any lapse of concentration or reflexes could mean the end. It is also critically important to keep an eye out out for banana peels, sliding turtle shells and Bowser — who is determined to run everyone off the road.
Unfortunately, Bowser-Atlanta is a little more difficult to recognize than the original. Here he is not a big, horned, spiky turtle with an impishly evil grin. In Atlanta, Bowser is apt to drive a Lexus and be talking on his cell phone while simultaneously changing clothes and reading the newspaper. Makes sense. If I had to spend the time that most Atlantans spend in traffic, I’d have to do all those things too, just to keep up with my life.
With that kind of Bowser-esque driving during good weather, you can probably imagine the state of our state in snowy weather. Not a pretty sight. So on Saturday morning, when we woke up to a forecast of 1-3″ of snow, Jeff and I cancelled our errand running plans for the day and decided to spend a nice, quiet day at home.
No, we weren’t afraid of driving in the snow. After living in Colorado and Nebraska if I hadn’t learned to drive in the snow, I would have been stranded at home for months at a time. Instead, we were afraid of the various Bowsers who were undoubtedly screaming through Atlanta’s impossibly busy streets unaware that their average speed of 85 MPH is not appropriate when there is ice and snow on the ground.
As the snow began to fall, I was really looking forward to my day at home. I cleaned a few things. Sorted email. Worked on some creative-type projects. I figured I had killed hours and it was finally time for lunch. Hardly. It was only 10:30. I trimmed the claws of sleeping cats. Watched some things I had recorded on the DVR. Gave the cats a tinfoil ball. Ate lunch. Repeated the above steps and then looked at the clock again — figuring that it must be time to start dinner. It was 2:15. I made the bed. Fished the tinfoil ball out from under the couch, the TV stand and the hutch. The cats were sleeping so I played with the ball alone for a while. Then I sorted laundry. Woke the cat so he would snuggle with me. Played a computer game. Re-woke the cat so he would get off of me and watched some more TV. By then it was 4:00 and I was officially bored out of my mind. Not only was I bored, I was restless — which is the worst kind of bored. Like a hummingbird with ADD, I just could not settle on one activity for any length of time.
I was very happy for Saturday to come to a close. Normally, I love days that stretch before me with no plans and no expectations. But yesterday was different somehow. I think it was a perfect illustration of my Spiritual life right now. Restless.
It’s a very strange, paradoxical-type feeling. Although I do feel restless, I can’t remember a recent time when I have felt closer to God. Although I am struggling to find my place in this world, I have never been more aware of my place in HIS world. Although I keep asking, “What am I doing?” God simply reminds me, “I am.”
Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
It’s difficult to be still when all I want to do is become a useful and involved member of a church that I love and the community that I wish was a smallish, semi-rural, city in Nebraska. It’s difficult to be still when I feel like God is trying to teach me something and yet I am somehow missing it. It’s difficult to be still and listen for God when I’m used to having His will for me clearly defined. It’s difficult.
Church was cancelled this morning so we have another long day at home ahead of us. However, the snow is mostly gone, the sun is shining and Jeff is feeling frisky and productive. So maybe we’ll ignore the Bowser warnings and venture out anyway. I have to admit, the thought is exciting. But I also know that the day will go quickly and after running around and getting stuff done, I’ll wish for a day like yesterday.
A quiet, peaceful, gloomy day when time distorts from normal speed to impossibly slow. The kind of day that simply breathes, “Be still.”
