It has snowed the last few days in my hometown. This is very unusual for us, as we normally get a small Christmas card dusting in March and that’s it. But this was a genuine snowfall that lasted for three days and coated everything in soft, silent white.
So I bundled up yesterday and took myself and my camera out into the flurries, because it’s not very often that we get to capture this.
I know it’s expensive, and I know it’s a pain, and yes I complain about it along with everyone else. But I secretly love snow – a friend of mine said recently that snow makes it feel like “for a few moments the world isn’t ours and that’s refreshing”…and I think that’s it really. As my booted feet dug into the inches thick layer of cushioning white on the sidewalks, it did feel like I was walking in a whole other place. Everything was quiet, and pure and even…rendered in a crisp cold monochrome. Nature’s black and white photography.
And people talk more, somehow, when it’s snowing. When you’re walking on a sidewalk that only has a single trail of footsteps available, and you have to pass someone, you find that you automatically smile, and speak and make eye contact. You can’t really stare at your phone while you’re walking in the snow, for the sheer reason that you have to actually watch where you’re going. I had more human interaction on that hour long walk than I usually do walking down a sunlit street.
Snow…deep down…gives me hope.
And these days, I think we should all take hope, wherever we can find it.