There wasn't much, if any, snow left yesterday Morning. We just had a little taste of what is to come. Winter rarely arrives much before Thanksgiving, but often enough, to create memories. The earliest it arrived in my memory was 1991. The famous Halloween Blizzard. The official snow tally for the Twin City area was 8.2 inches. Many areas had well over a foot. We did. Usually, early snows melt quickly, regardless of the depth; however, that snow was still on the ground when the Spring melt occurred. It was the longest Winter in my memory.
When I was a child, we often had cold weather but no snow. Except for the great Armistice Day Blizzard in 1940 [I was five], we usually had snowless Novembers, and many times, snow didn't arrive until late December. We had many brown Christmases when I was growing up.
Many times, I wished I kept a log or diary, at least record the weather events. I never got around to it. Now that I blog three times a week, I may record some of that kind of data.
On an impulse, yesterday, I picked out an old blog to read. I think it was December 11, 2013. Then I read several before that date. I didn't remember that Winter came with a bang that year. We not only had snow, but the temperature was below zero F. for a week, on one occasion, and few days on another. It was a cold December.
I hardly ever read my old blogs and I was impressed with how much that fellow knew. You would think that I would really have my act together by now. It doesn't work that way. As I have said before, a teacher teaches what he/she is trying to learn. We may be able to see the truth; but being the truth, that is a horse of a different color. I hope I am making progress.
Well, I will have completed my eightieth year in a couple months. What is it like to be over eighty? I have discovered when people get to my age, they suddenly become proud of it, and will use every opportunity to tell people. Well, not everybody, I know a couple of people who still struggle with the idea. However, I meet people in the grocery store, waiting in line at the cash register, or looking for something on the shelf, and the subject of age comes up and they are more than happy to tell you how old they are. There is certain gratification to reaching eighty and beyond; especially if we are still robust and healthy.
Robust is kind of a strong word, but I am certainly healthy. My feet keep me from walking any great distance and I can't get down on the ground and arise, without something to pull myself up. Several times, in the last several Winters, I would fall down and have to crawl over to a fence post, tree or something to get myself up. That has been going on for a long time. In fact, the worst time, I may have been still in my late sixties; I fell down and the snow was so deep I could not reach the ground with my hands. I was young enough then, I probably could have pushed myself up, if I could have reached the ground with my hands. I was home alone and I had to submerge myself in the snow and crawl to the nearest upright object to pull myself up. That was in the days when we still had to read our own electric meters and I was walking through waist high snow to reach the meter on the post. Now the company reads them electronically.
Physical limitation, with age, doesn't bother me much. I can do almost everything I really want to do. There are some things right now, I really need to do, that I am not doing. The window for digging those potatoes could close anytime. That is something that is hard for me to do by myself. I could pick the potatoes up by just bending over. It is much easier when you can get up and own. In the past Jamie has been the one on all fours and I did the digging. She has been getting better and she pronounced herself willing to give it a try. Perhaps this weekend. I, also, need to transfer some sheep from one pasture to another. I can handle that. I just haven't.
Of course, when we reach eighty, we are aware that our sojourn on the planet could come to a halt anytime. That is true, for any of us; but when we read the obituaries and see that half the people cashing in are younger than us, we can't escape the idea that time is limited. But, I am not in the least concerned about it. For other folks, I only wish to stay around until my presence is needed. For myself, I want to stay around, until I see, the real emergence, of a new civilization.
I have been dreaming of a new world for most of my life. I can easily see, how beautiful the world could be, if we only gave it the smallest chance. What if we would give up hostilities for a single generation? What if we decided to love each other? What if we would meet each others' needs, rather than be competitive? What if we put creativity and serving above making money? What if we treated our Mother Earth, as a loving being, who nurtured us and cared for us? What if we accepted we were one with Nature and one with source? How would it be if we knew we were One?
Simple questions. We have the capacity to be all of this and more. No! I can't leave this planet until I see the new world take shape. I am going to hang around, and remind people of what they're missing, until they see it themselves.
Happy Friday! Celebrate! The light is increasing!
Love and Peace, Gregg
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