Winter is exhausting.

While the days are shorter, they're really just longer, never-ending darker extensions of themselves.
Snow is beautiful.
Snow is exhausting and relentless.

But I will take the snow over the sub-zero temperatures and ugly grey landscape any day. I don't much love winter... I don't much care for it to be honest, but I do find the snow to be beautiful. I am a visual person and so give me something pretty to look at and perhaps photograph and I am happy.

But snow is inconvenient. It creates havoc with our lives, messing with our schedules, trapping us indoors, forcing us to put a halt to meetings and plans that we may have. A couple of years ago I would have complained about this. I did complain about this. But I don't any longer. Maybe it's because my oldest is leaving the nest in 3 short years.

Now of course these are my views as a working parent whose life is greatly impacted by the weather.
There's not much we can do about the weather, is there?

We can do the best we can.

We can reschedule meetings and try to work from home.
We can try to replace meetings with conference calls.
We can take advantage of emails and our laptops.
We can enjoy our children and our time with them.
We can send them out to play.
We can have the older ones help with the shoveling.
We can gather 'round the fire.
We can read in bed and encourage the kids to as well.
We can spend some time together interacting and playing board games.
And we can demand some peace and quiet for work.
We can make it work.
Do we have a choice?
We can slow down.
What's wrong with slowing down?
When did slowing down become a bad thing?
When did living graciously become a bad thing?
Maybe it's time that we all learn how to live simply.
Maybe it's time we all learn how to live graciously...
Like our parents did when we were children.

I can't do anything about the weather but make the most of it and I intend to do just that...

after I toss a log onto the fire!