By: Jennifer Richardson Holt
Today is not your average day in most senses of the word. As I write this I am snuggled on my couch with a cup of coffee and a snoozing dog next to my leg. We are both tucked under a warm blanket. She stirs and gives a dramatic sigh from time to time. I can’t possibly fathom what could possibly perplex her as I am quite certain that she doesn’t have a single bill to pay. On my other side is my daughter, also tucked under warm blankets. The fact that this is the state of things on a weekday makes this very out of the ordinary.
This isn’t a holiday. I am not at work and my daughter is not at school because of winter weather. For people who live in the deep south, the world pretty much shuts down when we have winter weather. It isn’t that we don’t like it, it is just so foreign to us that we aren’t prepared to handle it, so we just opt to cease to function. Ironically though, my area had only the slightest bit of freezing rain early this morning and now it’s just cold and raining. We probably (at least in my immediate area) didn’t have to go full shut down but here we are home and comfy reveling in the joy of fuzzy blankets and unexpected free time.
Both my daughter and I would have loved a bit of snow. We would have gone outside and played and maybe made a snowman. It’s a novelty we rarely get to enjoy so we would have made the most of it. However, since it’s just cold and rainy, we did try to take advantage of the opportunity for a bit of mother-daughter time. We discussed our plans, and we watched the classic movie Fantasia. She’d never seen it and it has likely been over thirty years since I had. I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about it, and honestly, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it after so long. But, in classic form, her favorite parts were mine and my favorite parts were hers. We are cut from the same cloth. You give us fantasy creatures, most especially unicorns and, well…however you correctly say the plural from of Pegasus. Throw in a touch of mythology and she and I are fully invested in the story line. Seriously, every time I discover some random interest of hers that I share, it just warms the cockles of my heart. And they were toasty today as we watched lady centaurs have their hair brushed by cupids and wear doves as hats.
For just a few moments there were flutters of flurries. Of course, nothing stuck but to watch what began as a misting rain begin to flutter was beautiful. A few grey deer casually sauntered out of the forest at the edge of my back yard to partake in some corn that had come from the feeder. A few sparrows, a couple of crows and a squirrel scattered to let the does have room. While the flurries only lasted for a few moments, the flakes seemed brighter against their dull dark fur. But the snow was short lived. Quickly it turned back to a cold mist and as much as I was uninterested in watching it the wildlife seemed to share the sentiment and returned to the woods. Nobody much fancies being out and about in a cold drizzle even if food is promised.
My daughter and I have played some quiz games and done some riddles which are things that, yet again, we both enjoy. We have laughed and acted silly. We have made sure to never be short of soft blankets maintaining the appearance of burritos with people filling.
My mother texted and asked what we were up to. I told her that we were doing a little bit of everything. She told me to enjoy it because she missed her little eight-year-old. I pondered her sentiment. I know people talk about it all the time. People love to say how children grow up so fast. It’s true. I know. I can tell just how quickly time passes in general the older I get. And the fact that my daughter now comes up almost to my shoulder and I am very tall, gives me pause. Yes, both my husband and I are tall so she comes by her height honestly, however, every so often, she will have on some particularly adorable ensemble or make some ridiculously mature statement, and I am aghast of how she has grown. So, I may be snuggling a bit tighter at this point. I won’t have a little girl that wants to nestle into blankets with me on a snow day without snow. Snow for us is rare enough, so though it was not more thana bit of a flurry and some freezing rain, I should milk that for all it’s worth just like I should cherish my little girl, wrapped in a blanket, laughing with her head on my chest because that, will likely melt away faster than any snow.
Prose and Possibilities 
AW😊
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