Snowfall on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

It feels a bit like home (Green Bay, WI) to have snow this early. I don't recall many Chicago Christmases that have featured much snow. With a good foot having fallen overnight, and a weather forecast that predicts no let-up in the freezing temperatures, it seems a good chance that December will be white.

As I shovelled this morning, I was brought back a bit to childhood by the sheer beauty of the quiet snow draped in mysterious shapes over rail and bough, leaning gently over eaves and sills. In the city, a short snowfall so quickly turns to ugly slush in the quick (politically-driven) barrage of salt and snowplow that we too often miss the magic of snow. Surely there is a lesson in the halt that snow used to bring to all 'productive' activity. Surely God is gently inviting us to relax, trust, contemplate, slow down, and perhaps even make hot chocolate and read a book.