Silent Church/Holy Church

   

     So my ground's not the only thing frozen right now...
     On my TV screen, Holly Thompson's face...is frozen in a most distorted expression...

     And then my TV fades to black.

     My screen now reads:

ONE MOMENT PLEASE

This channel should be available shortly.

(Me? I'm thinking: "Operative word: "should")  

I pause to breathe in the silence.

     The ice on my drive, my deck, my trees, I can measure with a ruler. Only now has it started to snow. (Before now, it's been ice and sleet and see-through precipitation...all solid, all hard, all very icy cold and pretty, but nothing to compare to the fluffy, inviting stuff we were all hoping to wake to and play in by now.)

     My systems alarm shows icons I've never before seen...It's caught my attention.
     I have living things I love outside these doors...(and many inside).
     It's those below zero overnights that'll stop you in your tracks.

     So cable is out, which means, for me, for now I use the hotspot on my phone (my phone, btw, now tethered, as is my computer, as are my back up battery options, cause once cable goes out, electric is bound to follow ... #lifeinasmalltown )

     I'm thinking back to that ice storm of '98. Like today, it didn't look all that scary at first...It was the kind of dusting that makes Northerners laugh. But it's also the kind of ice we Southerners' know to respect as it can rearrange your life like nobody's business.

     Thank God for that holiday weekend!
           (Thanks to out-of-town guests, I have food in my fridge!)

     I thank God I now have a helper...
           (Because Friday found me in meetings, someone watched a forecast. Thanks to him and his sweet wife, my goat chow is replenished. My dogs, have a surplus on hand.)

     What else might I do?
            How else to prepare?

     Anything recharge-able, is at this moment charging. (My computer, my cell, my back up battery to my cell and computer...Check.Check.Check.)

     Candles are handy.

     Flashlights near door.

     What more can a girl do?


     Last week we stacked wood ...

     The rest... I consider a gift.


     God's little silent test run for a girl who now contemplates "sustainable" living on a daily basis....

     Thought through in advance, and we get to remove fear.

     Coming at you after ...when you least expect it... Adrenals go off, and any number of chaotic choices and reflex reactions can transpire...

     I silently choose the former as I light a candle and watch a steady, beautiful snow now replacing that hard hitting sleet that first met my day ... and stealing my cable.

     So I won't see the forecasts...(oh well)
     I can't hear reports...
     If something bad's coming, I'll be the last to know (and you know, I'm actually ok with that)

     Sorry world. I cannot ponder with you on this one, but do know I am silently, peacefully, feeling this experience alongside, inside with you...For we are all one.

     I once asked for meaningful...
     Lo and behold, God delivered.

     This time by way of a silent, sleeting, snowy isolation...
     (oh yeah, and she removed my cable...and no doubt soon, my internet)

     Oh well...

     Hard to call that a problem...

                              to the contrary...

                                         pretty certain it's a gift.