The snow had begun in the gloaming,

And busily all the night

Had been heaping field and highway

With a silence deep and white.

James Russell Lowell, 1847

The first snow.

It caught me by surprise, like it does every year. First snowflakes. First snows arrival. First day or evening when the air actually smells like snow, a chilly, clean scent. It hints at what is to come.

Are you ready for the winter? the earth asks. Because its on the way. In just a few months I will no doubt be sick of the snow, but right now?

I welcome the first snow.

Staring out the window on a mid-November chilly and grey Sunday afternoon this week, daydreaming a bit as I sat in a church meeting, I looked outside, then looked again, then saw delicate white flakes falling down to earth, flakes that had not been seen in these parts since last March, on the tenth to be exact. For 253 days the snow went away. And now it is back.

I love the first snow.

By meteorological measurements the sudden burst of the white stuff that snuck into my home town: it will not be named as the first official snow of the winter of 2019-20. My favorite local weatherman, David Epstein, reports that in order for a snowfall to be the real first snow, it has to measure at least a tenth of an inch deep, just enough of the white stuff to cover the ground, if only temporarily. Still, the minute dusting that was left behind in the wake of that squall: it comforted me in its annual return. In a world where the volume of life can be so darn loud right now car horns honking in traffic and media blaring from screens and raised partisan voices accusing from the TV and leaf blowers buzzing the first snow, thank God, blanketed life in peace and stillness, quieted my heart and soul, if only for a moment.

I listen to the first snow and it says, Hush

As with all of New Englands weather, it is pretty much impossible to predict with certainty when the first significant snow will arrive each year. In 2000, the snow didnt show up until Jan. 13, disappointing hope-filled white Christmas fans, but in 2010 first snow blew in on Oct. 10, tricking and treating us well before Halloween. For all that New Englanders love to talk about the weather and worry about the weather and complain about the weather, it is humbling to consider that we have absolutely no control over the weather. When will winter storm like a blizzard or sleet with wet sticky snow or surprise us with puffy white flakes that lazily fall down to the earth and pile up in elegant puffy drifts?

I wonder when the snow will come then I remember that God only knows.

So, thank you first snow. Thank you too, You, the Maker of the snow and the winter and all seasons. Thank you that for us in this part of Creation, we get to enjoy it all weather wise: gentle May mornings and steamy August noon-times and blustery September evenings and yes, a November day, just past noon, when the snow came back and it fell upon the ground and for a moment I forgot the world and all its pressures and all its demands and all its brokenness and I just watched the tiny flakes with wonder and gratitude.

I stood and watched by the window

The noiseless work of the sky,

And the sudden flurries of snow-birds,

Like brown leaves whirling by.

The Rev. John F. Hudson is senior pastor of the Pilgrim Church, United Church of Christ, in Sherborn (pilgrimsherborn.org). If you have a word or idea youd like defined in a future column or have comments, please send them to pastorjohn@pilgrimsherborn.org or in care of the Dover-Sherborn Press (Dover-Sherborn@wickedlocal.com).

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Spiritually Speaking: A lover of the first snow - Wicked Local Walpole