Stop and Watch the Snow

How often do you stop to watch the weather? Not just a quick glance out the window, but pausing what you’re doing and taking a seat to watch it progress. Personally, observing the weather is one of my favorite things to do. Granted, I often enjoy the experience more when the wind is whipping the echo of thunder about, or the house across the street is whited out by snow. The extremes are easy to be distracted by. However, the times when I sit back and watch the fluffed clouds sail by, or the grey overcast, I find just as much pleasure. The thing is that weather has always awed me. How easy it is for the wind to topple houses, but not trees. When the world above the clouds is peaceful and sunny, but below a storm is brewing. Even the peaceful days have their layers.

Sitting back and taking a break from life is not easy. Often we fail to take small breaks in day to day life. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how individuals are pressed to do more. Take on more projects at work, pick up new skills and hobbies to learn, push yourself at the end of the day to finish the chores you haven’t been able to get to all week. Work is necessary, I have no doubt about that, but at what point is it asking too much of us? When is the last time you were encouraged to slow down, not rushing about through life with an external goal, but doing tasks simply to do them? I push myself when I write, during whatever stage of the process I’m in. I care about writing, and I have the external goal of making it my main means of living. But ultimately I chose writing for that goal because the simple act of writing brings me joy. Not everything I write will become a book. Sometimes what I write will only ever be seen by me. However I constantly worry that I’m not doing enough to pursue my goal, even if my overarching desire is simply to enjoy my work. Even for the aspects of life we cherish, it is so easy to fall into the habits of overachieving. It isn’t bad to push yourself, but when you’re pushing yourself to the point you forget why you do things to begin with, that’s where the purpose of life is lost.

So during this season—a season where many are sick yet still encouraged to push for more—maybe sit back and watch the snow fall. Or listen to the wind whistle in the trees. Remember why we do the things we love. Because if we constantly trudge through life simply to get from one means to the next, then that’s just surviving, not living.