Where I live most of the winter has been drier and warmer than usual. During the months of December and January only 3 inches of snow fell total. That has not been true of February. With the turn of the calendar page it became wetter and cooler in this last month of winter.

February saw close to a foot of snow fall where we live. I just finished shoveling about 8 inches of snow in one storm. I noticed that with a blanket of snow, that all starts from tiny little flakes, the landscape is transformed.

The transformation of the landscape, of the houses, of the grass, of the trees triggers something in our brains and in our bodies. It’s as if we’re given a signal.  The snow tells us that it’s okay to become childlike again. I noticed my own teenagers that with the snow there less concerned about being “cool”. Instead they want to go out and play in it as if they were 4 or 5 years old again. I noticed the same in myself.

The external transformation of the landscape gives us the okay to have an internal transformation of ourselves. It gives us the positive affirmation to act differently. That has been inspiring to me. To realize there is corporate response to snow has helped me to see this white stuff and our response to it in a new way.

I am happy to shovel. I’m happy to throw snowballs with the kids. I’m happy to play with the kids in the snow. However what I am taking out of this new adventure in snow is that it points to something beyond itself. The snow is but a trigger that tells us we can act differently. It tells us that it’s okay to drop the way we try to be and just be ourselves again in childlike awe.

I thought has now come to me, why not see a trigger when there is not a trigger?  In other words, why not be filled with awe and act in a loving, fun way when there’s no snow?  The snow is the external affirmation that it’s okay to act differently. So why not skip the snow and just affirm to ourselves that it’s okay to see things with a sense of awe and wonder just like we did when we were children?

I do realize that snow is not always inspiring to people. Sometimes it’s seen his work. Sometimes snow is seen as an annoyance. However even that can be transformed if you just look a little bit differently at it.

So the inspiration of snow is really not about snow. It is instead about how we can act and see things in more of a childlike manner. We can become adventurers again. We can become people with wide eyes again.  We can see anything in any season as something to learn through and grow through and have fun in. That is what the true inspiration of snow is all about. It is not about white stuff on the ground. It is all about how you see your surroundings and allow yourself to act and be.

May you be filled with inspiration this day to see everything fresh and new whether there is snow or not, whether it is winter, spring, summer, or fall.  Use your own God-given creativity to have childlike awe and wonder in all things.  Your life will become an exciting adventure again.

Be inspired!