The holidays are over and so is the festive mood. The New Year has come and winter has brought some snow. I was woken up by the silence early this morning and I’m still lying in my bed. The first thought running through my mind is: “This kind of silence is always accompanied by snow.”
Whenever the kids from the nearby kindergarten play in their playground outside in wintertime their voices are the best indicator that everything sounds different when there’s snow. This is where the fun starts!
Everything is white in front of my window. My assumption has been confirmed. The winter has its own rules of the game. As a child, I was looking forward to those kinds of games. The fun began when we were dressed warmly being wrapped up well so only our eyes were visible while running outside. Part of the fun was a concerned grandmother who always was afraid that we could catch a cold. On the other hand, a calm mother carried a lot of things with her. These things were very useful for decorating our snowman – things such as an orange bucket turning into the showman’s hat, coal for the snowman’s eyes and a stick for the snowman’s nose.
Where I grew up there’s usually a lot of snow in winter. Vital passageways within snow covered backyards have to be cleared from snow. Thus, small manmade maps of paths leading from building to building and backyard to backyard were created year after year. These routes were meant to be walked on but there were some exciting exceptions: Between snow covered ground and single buildings there were areas absent of snow where the ground peaked through. Even though we were very excited about the snow we were delighted to find such spaces.
We were fighting against enormous icicles hung from the rooftops. We choose the biggest ones and tried to get them down somehow. It was a lot of fun and this is exactly why these games are so exciting – because it’s fun to set up and follow your own rules.
Despite cold temperatures, we’re able to keep those eventful and heartwarming moments fondly in our mind. Enjoying the little things in life like a child can help us to build relationships and to gain access to nature.
It is still winter. Everyday life often is colorful because colors belong to everyone’s life. However, the subtle wintry colors can bring back happy memories of our childhood.
Even though I haven’t built a snowman or engaged in a snowball fight in a very long time, the emotional connection stays the same. We play and we always will play on.
Yours, Lali