Today, I awoke to a sunny day. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, there wasn’t a cloud* to be seen and the ground was covered in snow definitely a picturesque setting. Wow, it is beautiful! Upon further investigation I realized my driveway hadn’t been plowed, my car was covered with snow and the deck would need to be shoveled before I could get wood for the wood burning stove. Oh, well I have enough wood for a while. I am going to play the “Scarlett O’Hara” card. “I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow”. 🙂 So I checked the weather report which made the Scarlett O’Hara card seem even better. With the wind chill the temperature outside had a minus sign in front of it. No, thank you.

And then a slight gloom started to set in. Actually a small pity party started to materialize. I was taken aback at first. What is this all about? Was it because I had a dull pain in my shoulder/neck? Most likely caused my carrying wood yesterday and then deciding that hurling wood over the deck rail onto the deck was a better mode of operation. Obviously from the pain in my shoulder, it was not. I took 2 Advil and thought about my funk. I realized that I was feeling sorry for myself. But why? The only reason I felt sorry for myself was I was going to have to be a participant in this snow day and not just an observer -see blog from yesterday. I was being a brat and felt alone.

Breakfast was going to be needed before shoveling could begin. As I started to cook, I heard someone on the deck. It was the 10-year-old boy from across the street. Over the summer, I had arranged with my neighbor’s son to shovel a path to the Barn but I wasn’t sure if he would show up on such a cold day. He had shoveled yesterday but wasn’t sure if he would be back. Yes, he showed up and he brought his dad and older brother. After a brief “catching up on things” conversation, they asked if I wanted them to clear the snow off the car and shovel out the car. I explained that my snowplow guy wasn’t sure if he would have his truck back from repairs in time to plow thus why I had parked near the road. I mentioned I am not leaving until tomorrow but yes, that would be wonderful. A few moments later I heard the snowplow. Wow! There was a knock on the door asking for car keys to move the car so the driveway could be plowed. In less that 20 minutes, the driveway was plowed, my car was cleared and path was shoveled.

As I glanced out the window, I was grateful. I smiled. I am an independent woman but on occasion I have grumbled to God that I have no men in my life (my husband, father and brother are deceased). I seem to grumble especially when there are things that I think a man would be better at. I am not so liberated or independent that I don’t want a man to do the heavy stuff. 🙂 And on those occasions like today God reminds me that I am so wrong about that. First and foremost I have Him. God also reminded me of all the men in my life and as I thought about them and I smiled again. Today, I awoke to a sunny day. Today God blessed me with a few good men and boys. Thank you!

*Side note: cloudless blue skies make me nervous. That however is a story or therapy session for another day.