Enough already!

Even introverts have their limits! Since Christmas we have had snow and ice on the ground with snowstorms every week. Our church closed two Advent Sundays and Christmas Sunday because of the weather. If I time it right, mama and I can get to Weaverville, maybe Asheville, once a week. Asheville proper has not had as much snow so townies are able to move about more freely. Here in farm country in north Buncombe County we are on the edge of the heavy snow. Only four wheel drive vehicles(and my little all wheel drive Subaru) can be depended upon for relatively safe transportation.
Sunday we crept out to meet neighbors for lunch to relieve the cabin fever. Mid-day is the safest time to travel. After we ate, we all drove to Tractor Supply to buy food for the animals and then to the grocery store to buy food for us. A new storm was blowing in on Monday and we needed to replenish the basics. Cars in the parking lots had snow piled high on their roofs and people were unusually friendly in their gratitude to be out and about. Black humor in the checkout lines turned strangers into neighbors as we compared notes on this unusual winter.
Doubling my daily dose of Prozac is preventing a descent into snow madness and I am discovering even a confirmed introvert needs some external stimulation. To interrupt the snow quiet and the sound of howling winds, I leave the tv on, not to watch but to hear. Animals are hunkered down and so am I, doing what it takes until the temperature hits forty next Sunday. Twice daily feeding, mucking and watering trips take longer when the wind blows. After I get back inside I am limp as a noodle.
Michael has been able to drive to work in his four wheel drive truck. Our neighbor Gary is running a truck pool for family and friends in his four wheel drive pickup. And when we get stuck, as we all have (except for those of us who drive our little Subarus and are proud), Gary comes with his tractor to pull us out. The common tasks of daily life call for careful creativity as we all pray for a thaw. With the thaw will come mud and that will be another story. As I practice the presence of God in the grey winter routine of farm chores, I pray for patience and hope.
Patience, one of the gifts of the Spirit, is hard to come by as I yell at the T.V. weather woman while she predicts more snow. Patience and long suffering are not a natural inclination for me and I am practicing patience everyday... patience when housebound basset hound Rufus begs to go out ten minutes after we just got back in... patience when I slip and fall narrowly missing landing in a pile of Ferdie poop... patience when I cannot keep up with housework and farmwork at the same time... patience with myself and others.
Hope comes unawares, springing up at the sight of five new baby calves running through the snow with their tails held straight up... bright sunshine with warmth that seeps into my bones... the green of the little collards patch in my front flowerbed peeping out from under the snow. Squirrels racing up and down the tree outside our bedroom window make me laugh and my frozen spirit begins to thaw. I remember nothing is eternal and everlasting save God. I am able to give thanks for winter which will turn to spring when hope and new life will surround me, new life which could not come into being without the dark and cold of winter.
“Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” Thanks be to God for patience and longsuffering, hope, laughter and new life in the cold and dark winter. It is enough.