Overheard at . . . Home

“Mom, I’m going to be late for school. Why didn’t you wake me?”

5:30 a.m. this morning – I wake up and read my email: ‘two hour weather delay’ awaits me. I gulp, think of my schedule for the day, and then sigh. Outside there is no snow, but at the sun begins to rise I see the white, sparkly frost which has settled on the trees and bushes like powdered sugar. The net which surrounds our trampoline is an opaque ghost. I sip my coffee and wrap a blanket around myself, cuddled up though the outside temp is near 20 degrees. It seems fitting that this weather delay happens two weeks before Christmas. Would that I could freeze time as easily as Mother Nature has frozen the earth.

Indeed, the gift of time is something I remember having received as a surprise Christmas gift a few years ago. A rare snow storm shut down the town and we were all stuck. With all of our children in elementary school, our neighborhood was close knit back then. We sipped cider spiked with Tuaca while the kids built snow forts and snowmen. One of us would trudge the half mile to the grocery store, backpack on back, sled pulled behind them with bells attached. Like an old sleigh, the jingling sound would follow them as they filled our orders for green beans, eggs, and more cider. There was no place to be…. No place we could be. In this moment, in this time, we slowed and the normal Christmas chaos disappeared in the gift of time.

It was the best gift I ever received for Christmas, the one I still cherish.

I pray your holidays are filled with these magical moments of time… or that in the stillness of the morning your own school delays take on the spirit of a gift.

Deanne

Have you had school delays this year? How is the weather where you live? What Holiday stories do you have to tell? I love, love, love hearing from friends and fans. So leave a comment during the month of December and at the end of the month one commenter will win a $10 donation to the non-political charity of their choice. Check back at the end of the month to see if you won.