Playing in the snow...

I get excited by snow -- maybe not as excited as I use to when I would drop anything for the nearest snowball fight (I did grow up in Florida after all).  While work and other sorts of grown up obligations make it more difficult, I still make a point to enjoy the few snowfalls I get in some manner.

Today, I decided to go down to Piedmont Park to enjoy the snow.  The wind chill was brutal, but I bundled up and went for a stroll; there is something so beautiful about a new snowfall.  After I had wandered around for a bit, I came across a hill that several people were sledding down.  I stayed and watched for a while.  I thought about how much fun it would be to enjoy something like this with someone else.  It is so much more fun to let out that inner child when you have someone else to enjoy it with.  Given that I was by myself (and that I also didn't have a sled), I just watched.

There were two groups that caught my attention.  The first was two young girls, who I assumed to be sisters, who were sliding down together sitting up on the same sled.  They were laughing and having so much fun.  The second group was a father and his young daughter sliding down together.  He was face first on the bottom of his sled while she rode on his back.  These two groups made me think about being a father.  I want to be the father who doesn't get upset about icy roads, but seizes the opportunity to go out and have a fun afternoon with his daughter.  Those are the memories that you don't forget.  The two girls just seemed to capture childhood so well.  Sometimes life is just about having fun and laughing and nothing more.

Well, I didn't come to the park to just muse about life and fatherhood and whatever else; I came to enjoy the snow!!  I continued walking and started throwing snowballs at inanimate objects.  I marched onto the fields at the park that were already speckled with snowmen.  I got on my knees and started making a snowman.  It then occurred to me that he needed arms.  And then I thought it would be pretty fun to put my beanie, scarf, and sunglasses on him.  I hate to brag, but it was a pretty sweet looking snowman!

I don't ever want to forget to make these moments a part of my life.  In fact, these moments are usually the only things I remember later on.  I barely remember any of my classes, but I do remember flapping my arms and squawking loudly like a hawk in Red Square.

"In the short term it would make me happy to go play outside. In the long term, it would make me happier to do well at school and become successful. but in the very long term, i know which will make better memories." -- Calvin and Hobbes.