As an adult, we are suppose to have learned the concept that instant gratification of our needs can not always be met. We get disapointed alot, we humans. I was suppose to pick the pup up this weekend, and now even a Monday pick up won't be possible due to the snow. I need feed and hope to go Monday if I can, but the snow and ice has caused difficulty for all of us. Hauling water is tedious and back breaking-but at least it is not freezing today, and maybe the water will be back soon.
I was sick of myself. Rather than complain about the snow, and now ice glaze, too much, I decided to take the snow bull by the horns this morning. I summoned up any energy I had left after once again chipping out gates and barn doors and I looked to the sky, eyes closed,
"Snow donkey! I need you!"
I helped Snow Donkey appear-for snow creatures are always a collaboration between land dweller and sky' gift of snow.
I wore a pair of hand knit mittens that were given to me in the 70's, by a family friend who was really like my grandmother and an avid knitter. She came to all of our family gatherings and died in her eighties some thirty years ago. Every winter we would get mittens, always with two color of stripes. When I cleaned out my mother's house, I found a pair she had saved for herself, even though she lived in California in her later years. We both missed Becky a lot, and those mittens just brought her to us anytime we needed her.
So those mittens I had on had a lot of magic dust for sure. As I patted and caressed Snow Donkey, watching his form emerge, I had a memory come to me-of when I was about eight and my Uncle and Aunt came to visit us in Minnesota. He was a well respected astronomer and a real brain. The guy didn't buy TV's, he made them on a weekend for fun. I was always in awe of him as a child. So they visited in winter, and we had lots of snow. He helped us make this giant snowman by creating a snow ramp to help move the large balls up higher-which he explained was how the Egyptians built the pyramids. More awe.
Perhaps it was the mittens, but more likely it was the combination of Snow Donkey and the mittens- that reminded me to let it all go sometimes-the fact the roads are impassable today and you need feed by tomorrow, or that you're stressed about the Kickstarter project, or the simple fact there is no coffee and you can't get to the store-and just fly around with the snow. I've never ridden a snow creature, just the real winged animals here, so I am not sure where I will go next with Snow Donkey, or how long it will take. But he certainly transported me somewhere today, and got me safely back home when it was time to come in.
Snow Donkey is a lot like a mother, I guess. He is here to remind through action that everything will work out-one way or another-perhaps not in the same order we think is best. Nothing I was faced with in the past three days really was 'bad'. I had lots of firewood, power, water, good food, cupcakes, wine, warm animals, safe animals, and a husband to help me.
"It's just weather," my mother used to say, when we were facing the tenth day of below zero weather.
