Lightly Child, Lightly.

~ Live & Learn

You wake up on a winter morning and pull up the shade, and what lay there the evening before is no longer there – the sodden gray yard, the dog droppings, the tire tracks in the frozen mud, the broken lawn chair you forgot to take in last fall. All this has disappeared overnight, and what you look out on is not the snow of Narnia but the snow of home, which is no less shimmering and white as it falls. The earth is covered with it, and it is falling still in silence so deep that you can hear its silence. It is snow to be shoveled, to make driving even worse than usual, snow to be joked about and cursed at, but unless the child in you is entirely dead, it is snow, too, that can make the heart beat faster when it catches you by surprise that way, before your defenses are up. It is snow that can awaken memories of things more wonderful than anything you ever knew or dreamed.

– Frederick Buechner, Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale

Notes:

  • Quote: Thank you Whiskey River. Photo by werner neururer (Austria) with Walk in the woods
  • Prior “Lightly child, lightly” Posts? Connect here.
  • Post Title & Inspiration: Aldous Huxley: “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.”

21 thoughts on “Lightly Child, Lightly.”

  1. Ohhh, what a perfect description. We had just this sort of snow on Christmas morning…thick, fluffy flakes spiraling down from the sky in rapid succession and taking me right back to my childhood. In mere minutes, I went from 50 something to 10…☺️

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  2. this describes the phenomenon perfectly. there is no way to resist it, until we start to remind ourselves of all of the negatives that go with it. upon first viewing, we are helpless to its appeal and joy.

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  3. This is so beautiful.
    Few days ago I told our 13-year old that I have all next week off and we can fly somewhere warm if she would like. Her reply was….
    “Mom, I think it’s sacreligious to go to a warm place during “our” winter. When it’s winter we should enjoy winter. ”

    Northern Wisconsin it is 😊

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  7. Such a perfectly beautiful description. Yes, we become childlike, for a minute, as I sit here in my “having-a-hard-time-warming-up-my-house-as-a-thermo-pump-does-not-work-when-temps-go-below- -15C (5F)-and-it’s- -22C (-8F) with-a-windchill-factor-of -34C (-29F) so-my-Convectair (electric) heaters-are-not-quite-up-to-speed” trying to convince myself that it really is beautiful outside. White snow, sparkling in the dazzling (but deceptive) sunlight… gorgeous.
    I ain’t goin’ out there. Just sayin’

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