Daily Grace, Presence

Snow Day Hallelujah

December 3, 2022

 

Just a nice, generic snow picture. Didn’t actually end up snowing at my house the other day at all (though it did at higher elevations). Still, I was grateful for the school snow day.

There is something very beautiful about a snow day, especially if you learn about it right before you have to get ready for a day of substitute teaching.

I always longed for snow days when I was growing up- those days when we would see a few snowflakes and turn the radio to KAHI, the local Auburn station, and wait expectantly to see if there were any school closures (because how else would you know about school closures back in the day? There was no internet, no text messages, no iPhone alerts.) All my schools were at higher elevations than where I lived, so if there were flakes at my house, odds were good that the buses would have to put on chains, and nobody wanted to make our kind bus drivers do that.

The best snow days I remember? High school. Sophomore year. My geometry teacher always gave his classes a spring break “present”: a huge assignment where you had to draw a picture only using geometric principles. It was something like that anyway. This assignment had a reputation; all my older friends had hated it. They warned me about it. “Just wait until you have to do the picture!” they said. I was dreading it.

Except when it got to be the week before spring break for my class? A series of storms rolled in. It snowed up the hill where my school was, so there was no school Monday. Or Tuesday. Or Wednesday. (Can you guess where this is going?) Or Thursday. And miraculously? None on Friday. The teacher hadn’t given us the assignment yet, so there was no way to work on it over spring break.

Hallelujah.

Best break ever.

Best snow days ever.

Had a pretty nice snow day last week, too.

When you are getting ready for a day of substitute teaching, and then you suddenly don’t have to go? You can take off your “trying to look professional so the seventh and eighth graders will respect me” outfit and put on sweats. You can empty your tea out of the to-go cup and put it in your favorite mug. There is even time for a third cup. You can stare out the window and watch the rain fall (because for some reason it is not snowing at your house yet, even though it is up the hill a little further) and not worry about putting on makeup. You can finally cut up that butternut squash and make that soup that you were hoping to make but didn’t have time for yesterday.

The calendar was clear of all other obligations and appointments, because it was a substitute teaching day. Now?  It was a home day. Sure, it’s only a day, but what an unexpected gift. To be home instead of out where the world makes its demands. No need to be responsible and in charge today. No need to keep middle schoolers on task and happy. Just me in my house with my butternut squash, a pumpkin candle, Biscuit, Fat Cat, and a steady, drenching rain.

Daily Grace, Presence

Thankful

November 26, 2022

So many leaves of gold

Thankful for this Thanksgiving week, for the week that was.

For a 5K run on Thanksgiving morning, which I somehow managed to complete, though my running these last months has been spotty at best (even finished with a time faster than I expected!). So maybe there’s hope, that even though I am not as fast as I was a few years ago, that I can still show up and surprise myself.

Thankful this week for the kind woman at the county tax collector’s office, who talked me off a ledge and explained what the alarming “tax due” notice that I received in the mail meant. Basically? Nothing that I need to worry about. It is always a very good thing when a tax official tells you not to worry about a bill. But when you get an unexpected one that is folded up in bright orange paper? You take notice. And you wonder. Maybe you worry. Until someone answers the phone and helps you, even though it is minutes before the office closes and Thanksgiving is days away.

Thankful for the work I had this week, for the chiropractor that I work for who gives me needed adjustments. Thankful for a trip to Target where I bought dishwashing liquid and face soap, spray cleaner and a new sweater that caught my eye weeks ago and which I finally decided to buy. It was not in my plan to buy a sweater for myself this week, but I’m glad I did.

Thankful that I snagged the last carton of heavy whipping cream at the grocery store two days before Thanksgiving. It wasn’t even for pie! It’s an essential ingredient for my morning tea. I would have been sad if all the pie baking people hogged the heavy cream and there was none left for me. One of my friends reported that Costco was out of eggs in his town. Costco! Out of eggs? Whoever would have thought?  Thankful that my little grocery store had plenty of those. And cream, too.

Thankful for the chance I had to walk at the park this week, golden afternoons where I passed a dog named Wally who had his long hair held back in a pony tail (doggy tail?) by a rubber band above his eyes.

Thankful that my dog didn’t starve this week. He is so picky! He will not eat just dry food. Or even dry food mixed with a little fancy wet food. It has to be all of that and then whatever meat I can scrounge up from what we’ve been eating lately. He will usually be OK if I add a little chicken breast or hamburger. But he doesn’t like the same thing too many days in a row. Variety is key, he tells me. This week I had both bits of chicken and hamburger for him, so he ate without giving me too many dirty looks or sighing too loudly.

Thankful for the beauty that is outside my front windows now. So much yellow in the turning trees, with dollops of red and orange sprinkled throughout.  When the wind picks up, the leaves tumble down. Raining leaves, it is. I could watch that show for hours.

Thanksgiving Day was what it was. No Norman Rockwell painting come to life this year. But somehow, it was fine. I am where I am. We are where we are. Figuring things out, little by little. Steps forward, steps back. Sometimes a lot of steps back.  Maybe the backward steps aren’t mistakes. Maybe they are part of the journey. And whoever said there was an absolutely perfect path anyway?

So much to be thankful for, this world with dogs named Wally and helpful tax office officials, 5k community runs and leaves that rain down like golden fire. Almost too beautiful, it is. Life and breath. Just to be here is a gift. Just to have been here this week was enough.