It is snowing at my house. I do not remember having a November snow since I was little. This morning, as I was watching the snow fall I thought back to a book I read as a young girl. It was either from the Little House on the Prairie series or In the Land of the Big Red Apple, but I do not recall which one. In the story, there is a party in the wintertime and all of the kids take plates outside and fill them with a mound of snow. They then cover the snow in sweet molasses. (I remember thinking how neat it was that there was shaved ice back then, too!) I wished that I too, could go to a barn dance and join the other kids in making this homemade treat, yum!
Well, today it is snowing and as I touch the snow I reconsider my will to eat much of it. Left-overs from a snowball in the face, no problem; but willfully consuming an entire plate of it, not so much. I wonder about what is in the frozen water, like dirt, pollution from cities, and other environmental poisons in such a seemly pure white layer of natural beauty. I think it is a bummer that I cannot confidently fill my plate with snow. This reminds me of how important caring for creation is, and how much it can affect even the simplest notions in life; in this case – an old-time sweet winter treat.
~Lana Lile
