Dear Mom it’s a snow bunny

Dear Mom it’s a snow bunny

It snowed on the first day of Spring. Claire would have spent the entire day playing in it. Just when I get her to the point where she does not have chapped lips, it snows again. The snow stuck pretty well but it was too fluffy and would not roll well into a big snowball. So, we spent a lot of time packing it into place and trying to get it to look like a snowman. It started to look a lot like a mouse, then the mouse ears started to look a lot like rabbit ears. Next thing you know we are building a snow bunny.

I was very tired of the snow. I mean, snow again? Really? Could we read a book? Could we watch a movie? How about a game? No? It was snow.

Long ago I knew this girl. She lived somewhere that didn’t get snow. You probably remember when she visited at Christmas. It snowed. It was a pretty big deal to her. I live in the Midwest, it snows here every year. Sometimes it snows a lot, like this year. Playing in the snow was never a high priority for me. And when I was in those days it was not even on my list of things to do. With a beautiful woman visiting, I was thinking about dinner, a movie, cuddling on the couch, I was thinking about a lot of things. I was not thinking about bundling up and playing in the snow. But, it was important to her so I did it. She made a little snow bunny. I was not sure if it was her first snowman, but it might have been. It was really more of a sculpture. Very cute, with its ears and everything. I threw a snowball at it and knocked an ear off. The look on her face might very well have changed me forever.

I still feel guilty about it to this day. I was probably transparent. I was feigning interest in building a snowman and was really thinking, “are we done yet?”

She probably just wrote it off as me being a guy. It was a great visit. She cried when we said goodbye at the airport, I cried when I drove home from the airport.

There is a point when you are doing something, that you decide it is fun. It is a complex formula of risk versus reward, time value for your money, emotional investment and many other things. Some people don’t seem to enjoy anything. Some seem to enjoy everything. I don’t enjoy everything but I have found great joy in being a part of other people’s happiness. Something about it being fun for them makes it fun for me too.

I was thinking about that while we were standing in the cold with the snow falling, building our snow bunny. I was having a great time. Somehow along the way I learned when someone’s happiness is more important than your own, you do not have to sacrifice to make them happy. Not if you can grab the brass ring and be happy with them.

I know for a fact that one moment all those years ago and that expression on her face, I still remember, has lead to many wonderful experiences in my life. Somehow that revelation has made me a better daddy.

Love Mike