SNOWMAGEDDON

I learned a new word this morning when I turned on CNN. Washington DC is snowed in and the news spin is bringing up images of the apocolypse. Not the traditional fire and brimstone, but snow and ice.

I must admit that, as I sit in a motel room in Regina, basking in the minus 20 Celsius prairie sunshine, that I laughed a bit at the reporter, who was standing on the already melted sidewalk with no sign of a visible winter breath. But I quickly move to a more compassionate attitude. What is familiar to me, is foreign to them. Not that either of us normally has it better or worse, but that we have grown comfortable with what we experienced most. I have been out of my comfort zone on more than one occasion - and so, I have empathy for those people who may feel that mother nature or father god is moving against them.

But "snowmageddon"?

Un-necessary extremes have a comical purpose, but I submit that we must not let ourselves lose track of the opportunities for growth that come with abiding with the unfamiliar.