“Rebecca, you have to see this before the sun comes up,” said my husband as I lay under the warm and toasty covers. I willed myself out of comfort, and sure enough, it was an amazing site. All I could see was the outline of trees completely covered in white, powdery snow as far as the eye could see. I stared in awe for a moment.

“Mommmmmmmmmmmmm!” my seven year-old cried. “My head huuuuuuuuuuurts!” which pulled me back into my morning mom duties. “School has been cancelled,” my husband said. “I have a busy day; I’m going to go ahead and get on the road.” And as if it had been an instant, he was gone to work.

“Warner, stop!” my seven year-old yelled to his five year-old brother.” “You stop!” he yelled back. All I could think about were the business-related items that I wanted to get done, and well, since returning home from a business trip seven days ago on a red eye, I have been caring for my sick older son, who had a persistent 102 fever and splitting headache for seven days. I had a momentary pity-party for myself – there are far worse things that could have happened and there is far more suffering in other places that put the situation into perspective. Upon taking my older son’s temperature, it was finally normal, and I breathed a sigh of relief. He is ok.

As he lay on the couch watching TV, calling over to me to get the remote for him that was on the coffee table two feet from his body, I said, “you are going to have to practice being well today. You’ve gotten too used to feeling bad.” Yesterday, I prematurely took him on a walk to pick up his younger brother from school and his fever went back up, so I knew he wasn’t faking his lethargy. “I’m just tired,” he said.

Upon hearing a noise, I turned to the window to see a neighbor using his snow blower to clear our driveway. What an amazingly kind gesture. I was about to take blueberry muffins out of the oven (don’t worry, I’m not that perfect; I keep quick boxed mixes on hand for warm muffins on snowy days), and my younger son and I suited up in snow gear to take some out to him to say thank you.

As soon as I stepped outside with my younger son and the dog, I looked up, and it was as if my lungs magically opened up with a cleansing breath that balanced the breath-taking view that was in front of me. While I saw that the trees were beautiful an hour earlier, there was nothing like stepping outside to experience it. And with the sight of powdery snow everywhere, my cares and worries were gone – just like that.

So, while the Washington Post has an article today about how local residents have had enough of the four snowstorms this season, I say, “bring it on.” Because most tasks we think we need to race to likely aren’t as important as taking a moment to breath deep, experience the beauty around us, and practice being well.

And when my younger son and I got back from walking the dog, my seven year-old had gotten his snow gear on, ready to go out and play.

Rebecca P. Cohen is the author of the upcoming book, 365 Days Outside: A Mother’s Journey to Improve the Well-being of Her Family and Founder and President of Rebecca Plants LLC, a gardening and outdoor lifestyle company that inspires families to spend more time outside together. For Rebecca’s Curiosity Cards, a set of 50 portable question and activity cards for fun family time outside, visit http://www.rebeccaplants.com/cards.asp

Copyright 2010

Rebecca Plants LLC