Enduring Together
Nature is cruel and out to kill - but we resist!
Winter is crushing in around us this weekend here in Western South Dakota with actual temps hitting -30F and windchill temps in the -60s. Even in the house you can feel the cold descend and push down. Most of the winter I take for granted that we have what we need and access to what we run out of. Now people’s pipes are freezing and even the main sewer sometimes freezes in these temperatures. So we hunker down, and hope it breaks quickly and support those without water at home.
In some ways it’s like living in a moon colony - totally uninhabitable outside with a great deal of effort and bundling to trudge around outside. But it’s also beautiful in an outer space kind of way - it’s still and dry (all the moisture has fallen out of the air) and crushingly cold.
But we proceed with life as planned. I met a friend for coffee this morning after dropping the kids at school and the place was packed. Sometimes I think the extreme temperatures challenge us to draw closer - to build more community and warmth to our lives. Tomorrow I will talk at a celebration of life for the husband of Cigarette and Diet Coke who died suddenly on Christmas Eve. I will remind each who gather that it is almost because of the sadness that we know God is close - because there is still so much warmth in life. It will be unbelievably cold (the height of irony since he hated cold/winter/snow and this is probably the coldest weekend of the year). We will soldier on, drawing close when we continue to suffer the pain of death, separation and steely gloom.
Maybe this is part of what I enjoy about winter, it reminds us that we need each other - that life is impossible alone. And it’s something I’m beginning to believe more and more about our faith and religious experience - it can’t really be done alone - at least sufficiently. My generation was among those who liked to say, “I don’t need church, I have Jesus in my heart and I go in the woods and we talk!” I think there’s value in this yes, but it's only part of the story. Alone we much more vulnerable to the frigid darkness - it can only be survived together.
So together we gather, we push back the cold and the dark that threaten to crush the life out of us. We encourage each other and remind each other that there is hope - that better times are ahead, that we will survive this and go on.
I hope you’re staying warm and snug wherever you are, and that you have people to support you through the hard times of life - whether physical or emotional or spiritual.
With Love,
Sierra
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*The winter of 1983 was painfully cold. Actual temperatures might have reached into the -40s and -50s. My parents were driving back to the Black Hills to see my grandparents. I was an infant in the back seat (which wouldn’t stay warm so they had to hold me in the front seat because you know, the 80s) and when they got me out I dropped a soft plastic toy. It no sooner left my hands but shattered on the sidewalk. Because my parents were young and crazy they decided to go cut a tree down for Christmas. Mom climbed up and topped a beauty (see picture), let it crash to the ground and then they went to collect it. But then found the whole back side where it had landed had disintegrated into sawdust sized splinters. Too cold to try again they drug it home and placed it against the wall. Crazy kids.