Canadian Winter, Eh?

 

Just like today [Sunday/Monday] but in 1972. Fifty-four years ago the Ukrainian-Canadian painter William Kurelek captured the aftermath of a snow storm—like the one that just landed in Toronto—on the street where he lived in Toronto’s Beaches neighbourhood. 

Art Canada Institute 

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
    and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
    giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,

so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
    it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
    and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

 For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
    shall burst into song, 

and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

Isaiah 55:10-12 NRSVue

Too soon? 

Hey, I spent four to five hours in snow removal a couple of days ago during and after the biggest snow event in Belleville in 53 years. That was back when none of us had heard of a Polar Vortex. 

As we left church on Sunday morning the storm was picking up energy, and I girded my well insulated loins for the next 24 hours of shovelling, snow-blowing, and sweeping. It took a long time before the plough came to clean out our small court. 

Please don't be bitter that I consider this cold and snowy January to be a blessing. This is slow release precipitation after drought conditions for months. Our Quinte Conservation Authority tells us that water levels are slowly returning to normal levels and all this snow will surely help. As I've said often, we have become disconnected from the cycles of the natural world to our peril. 

                                                             Grandchildren excavating vehicle 

Granted, snowstorms can be disruptive and dangerous. Ruth's Monday train to Toronto was cancelled because of the conditions and lots of drivers ended up in the ditch. Still, we went for a walk in the woods and it was beautiful. 

Do some of you remember the old Canadian Winter police chase commercial where both the robbers and the cops are pushing their vehicles on a snowy street in not so hot pursuit? Maybe we need a little more of this sort of humour and a healthy dose of the joy of children who get out there and play. I would be content with a little reprieve, just the same. 

Here is the final paragraph of a lovely reflection by Megan Craig called The Peculiar Magic of a Winter Snowstorm from the New York Times a few days ago: 

The French philosopher Jean Wahl coined a term, “transdescendence,” to describe how spiritual things descend. They fall sometimes like snow, coming all the way down to earth. Maybe not forever. But it’s good to be reminded, however briefly, that the short, dark days of winter include pristine quiet, epic cold, the equanimity of nature, the sun rising, visible breath, icy limbs, rosy cheeks and, every now and then, light falling out of darkness to blanket a rough world. Let it snow.

Transdescendence -- I love this new-to-me term. Doesn't this reflect the words from the prophet Isaiah?