Hurry up and wait

I woke up this morning to the sound of my little brother watching TV. I looked at my clock and saw that he should be at school already and then I soon realized that there were a few inches of snow on the ground. Snow day. Those two words would have brought more joy to my life than anything else when I was in elementary, middle and high school. But now that I am on winter break as a college sophomore and realize that I have a ten hour work shift ahead of me, my excitement is instead replaced with the realization that I have some snow shoveling to do. Wonderful. However, as I sit here and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate, I realize that regardless of my unfortunate work situation, the snow outside and around my house is beautiful. There are few things more gorgeous than fresh snow covering the ground and trees in a blanket of white. For the most part, people are forced to stay inside. This means finally getting a chance to sit down and read that book you have been wanting to get to or working on knitting that scarf you started weeks ago (knitting takes beyond forever in case you were wondering), or just sitting and relaxing with the family that you oftentimes are too "busy" for. We (and by we, I mean I) are always on the go and sometimes forget to appreciate the world around us. I feel like I am constantly on the move and don't even take time to enjoy the amazing things God has placed in my life. However, at times like these when we are cooped up inside our homes, we get to take the chance to soak it all up and realize that we needed this pause in our busy schedules. I needed this day. I am the infamous busy girl in my family and I try to move at a high speed pace every day. Snow day. I needed a snow day to slow myself down. God has a funny way of timing things so that we have experiences so eloquently placed, that even a romantic author like Nicholas Sparks couldn't tell the story better. Advice for the day: enjoy the world around you, stop running around like a chicken with your head cut off (a phrase my dad likes to use) and soak up the beauty of God's creation. Grab that book, drink that hot cocoa and be with that family that you always speed right past.