So I sit here and type as the world turns white around me. It’s a beautiful thing, snow. I don’t want to over romanticize, because there is no reason to. But living in the southern states, snow is a “once-in-a-blue-moon” occurrence. So you must appreciate the beauty for the short time it lasts.
You appreciate it even more when you are driving and can see the accumulation increase as you get closer and closer to your destination. That’s the way it was for me today driving home. When I started out driving home from Athens it was just cold. Just a dreary, cloudy, cold winter day. The ones that make you feel depressed just looking outside. But as my car moved closer and closer toward home, the scenery began to change. The windshield became plastered with falling specks of whiteness. Although none of it was sticking at the time, there was still a little bit of me that was skeptical of the actual amount that would stay for an extended period of time. When I got home it was apparent that this stuff was here to stay (for the night at least). But as I began driving around town more and more, and as more and more snow fell and covered the streets and businesses, the more and more I began to recognize the simple beauty the snow creates.
Maybe it’s the artistic side of me. Maybe my creative subconscious is drawn to it. Maybe I have an innate appreciation for it. Regardless, I have a strange affinity for the simple. Whether that be simple colors. Simple designs. Simple games. Simple anything. Simplicity makes sense to me.
But as I was driving, I began to noticed the simplicity that the snow brought. How the white flurries settled on the surfaces, transforming the once vibrant landscape into a duotone picture you would find on the wall in someone’s house. You never appreciate the beautiful contrast of white and black until you have seen snow cover every surface you can see. Driving by woods, the trees seemed to stand out like never before. The seemed ominous and foreboding, but in the same breath, mysterious and majestic.
Sometimes it takes darkness to be covered by white to fully appreciate the purpose of the white. For when it settles on top of the loud colors and signs, it strips away the distractions that seem to vie all to easily for our attention. It moves us from sensory overload, where we are bombarded with lights, sounds, and aromas on every side, to a sense of contentment for the simplicities of life. The stunning contrasts evoke some dreary undertones of course, but they invite us to stop. To slow down. To inhale the beauty that surrounds us. To appreciate the little things that make this world… well, simple.
inshadowsofglory 