First of all, let's establish that I am a self-proclaimed fear junkie. My mind does not behave well and goes to unwise places and hangs out. It's a daily struggle.
So, when weather men and women predicting this January 2025 upcoming artic front and winter storm started using words like "historic", "one for the books", and "generational", my mind immediately set up shop in those places it should not be. And the increasingly more definite prediction of more snow than we had seen in many years didn't make me feel excited and thrilled like most all kids and many adults.
Nope, I wasn't dreaming of feeling like this very happy cutie in the picture above.
Instead, these new words describing this winter event were just more ingredients for the fear stew that had been brewing for over a week, so that I looked a lot more like the beautiful but not happy child in the picture on the left here. Hesitant. Uncertain. Afraid.
I learned that this winter storm had a name, Enzo.
And Mr. Enzo, he surprised me, in an amazingly wonderful way.
I'm a southeast Texas girl. So that means that I haven't seen snow many times in my life. Just a few times, in "a few" years.
But nothing like this, ever. Or, to be more accurate, nothing that I appreciated like this, ever.
This snow was delightfully different. It was
fluffy, soft, gracefully coming down, and landing seamlessly in a pristine bed of perfect white. It coated everything so that the landscape had few variations and more unity. Bottom line, it was a gorgeous sight that greeted me when I looked out the window that morning.
And something else I noticed was the sound. Or, rather, the lack of sound. I could hear the wind, but the snow itself made almost no sound at all. It was like a muffled, calming, whisper soft utterance as it drifted down and sank into it's destination on the ground, adding to the blanket of gentle splendor.
My most recent memory of snow is not a good one. There was snow, but nothing soft and gentle about it. This storm was Enzo's mean cousin, Uri, who blasted Texas in February 2021. Colder temps than Enzo, high winds that seemed continuous, and snow that seemed to be mainly dangerous ice stayed for days. Many records were broken; one being the storm's longevity and number of days below freezing, and another being how it had devastating impacts for the entire state of Texas. This widespread storm resulted in close to 250 deaths and literally millions losing power for extended periods. I experienced no power and no heat along with so many others, and my city added to the roughly 49% of Texans who lost water for some time as well.
The weather men and women referenced Uri when preparing us for Enzo. They recognized how we still remember this as the tragedy it was and many, including me, could not help but worry about a repeat of at least some of those terrible results of the bad weather. But even though they offered encouragement by saying that this was much different in characteristics and area covered, it's hard to let go of such a traumatic impact.
Thankfully, all most of us had with this storm was some pretty cold weather and gloriously beautiful snow. An extravagant, wonderful gift that I treasured all the more because it was unexpected.
Growing up, I remember a few snow events and one in particular where my mom took pictures. Looks like the same event, maybe one picture in the morning and the other in the afternoon as the snow was melting. My cousin and I made a snowman. A fond memory. We worked hard to scrape up enough snow, and I think we did a pretty good job. :)
Fun times. And I suppose that as a child, it's all about the fun, and that's as it should be. I doubt I appreciated the beauty in the back yard that morning.
But Enzo? Oh yes, as a "mature" adult, this guy took my breath away.
The snow pictures I took of this event are nice remembrances, but they don't fully capture the reality that I hold in my heart.
This picture is a favorite, and I'm still in awe of God's timing when I pushed the button on my phone to capture one of many cardinals that were enjoying food from my bird feeder on this day. I wasn't trying to get a shot of the bird in flight, but God smiled and gave me this extra beauty.
Yes, Winter Storm Enzo was "historic" and "one for the books", for sure, in the best way. As for generational, I hope that doesn't mean it won't happen again for me. I hope that my generation will be able to have this same experience again while we are still young enough to appreciate and enjoy it.
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