Ice. It’s cold; essentially it is merely frozen water. It cools our beverages on hot summers days, is useful in easing aches and pains, forms icicles along my roof as snow melts. Rarely do I stop to consider ice, until it intrudes on my rhythm of life.
That’s happened only a handful of times. Once as a teenager, I remember getting an extended winter holiday due to a severe ice storm making the roads impassable and taking down power lines and trees, and more recently after experiencing my first polar vortex. Both times ice upset my flow of life. As the cold swept the midwest with extreme, below zero temperatures. Gusting winds caused this Texas girl to wonder, “How in the world did I end up in the arctic circle?”
In the wake of the storm came ice, but this time it was my kids missing school and having an extended holiday. The frigid temps and icy rain made the perfect recipe for a catastrophic arctic invasion both damaging and magical all in one. It’s been the most bizarre winter for me, first snow, then arctic winds, freezing rains causing an ice storm, flooding, insane winds, and now onto another round of snow blasts. From one day to the next I waited by the phone for my AM message informing me of another school cancellation.
Ordinary Ice having Extraordinary Presence
Ice is ordinary, yet can enact great change. Ice is simple, yet can transform a forest into a mystical, sugar encrusted landscape straight from the movie Frozen. Ice is plain, though it can take a road and make it deadly. It seems insignificant in its day-to-day existence, but in the right situation it can interrupt our daily routines of tv, electric, internet, heating, hot water, light, and sometimes shelter.
We can not underestimate what is ordinary.
These past few weeks of being homebound, feeling trapped and growing stir crazy have allowed for few luxuries, provided one—watching the world around us change significantly day after day. Through a large window looking toward our wooded backyard, as if trapped in a snow globe, we watched the snow falling around us for days. As the snow encroached around us growing higher and higher the winds picked up and swirled it into large snow banks. The deer struggled as they jumped like rabbits through the white fluff in desperate search of uncovered food. Nothing remained untouched by the absence of color.
Though there was little sun to lift our spirits, brightness shone all around illuminating our view with glistening white; everything glowed. Then suddenly it was like time and space stopped as a life-threatening, frigid stillness took hold. No living creature dared to creep into the bitterness of the polar vortex and freezing temperatures. Even our furnace struggled to maintain heating our home as if it wanted to throw in the towel. The rains came next, turning the streets into rivers and yards into lakes as the snow melted and mixed with rain. Steam rose like water on a scolding hot pan as warmer waters doused the snow. All vision was shrouded in white mist. When visibility was restored I saw the ice. It glazed every twig, rock, and surface as if draped in crystals. Each change was as ordinary as the next, ushering in its own imposing beauty and power.
Of all the elements that passed by our window, ice created the greatest threat. The cold became deadly, but the ice upset the normalcy of our lives. Taking out power, people needed shelter and warmth, in the midst of ice came more rains, winds and frigid temperatures making it difficult for the speedy restoration of power. Loss of power shut down schools and businesses, and the ice caused branches and lines to cover the slick roads making it difficult to travel. Snow can be blown and salted, but with ice, one can only wait for the warmth to melt its hold. When the temps finally began to rise, the crackling of ice sounded like pop rocks in the mouth. Rods of ice dropped off power lines crashing onto the roads and remnants of broken branches only glued on by ice fell from their heavily weighted captive–the damage is still in repair, with more to come.
Ordinary elements, in and of themselves, seem of no consequence, yet can reveal themselves as powerful, breathtaking, life-changing and resplendent. As I watched these simple states of matters do their worst, I was reminded that though we may look, feel or live simple lives that seem less than extraordinary, being one of God’s “simple creations,” means our ordinariness holds power along with the ability to exude life-changing and splendid acts that are breath-taking, meaningful and extraordinary in every way. You are not to be underestimated.
Reflection:
What part of your life or day seems the most ordinary?
Take time to think about the beauty that can be found in those ordinary moments or activities. Think about how they honor God.
When has something simple changed your life?
How might something simple about you; your vocation, home, family-life, home-town, be something powerful and beautiful in and around your community?
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