Today's morning sabbath walk was over at Ridge Hill Reservation. I did a lot of rehab there after my back surgery. We--the dog and I--got there early while it was still cold. I wanted to get her used to sitting in the car to get to a hike. It is a small skill but an important one if you are going to do much hanging out with me. This probably goes for humans as well. Anyway, that was all the "training" I could really get done on our walk. You cannot reason with a puppy who is encountering snow for the first time. Yep, we had a light flurry for about 90 minutes. Nothing stuck but it was exciting both for the dog and for me. It is Advent. Winter is coming. I am looking for it. Hopefully it shows up soon. ![]() There is a lot that I hate about winter. The dark gets to me. So does the general inconvenience. However, My animal brain is keyed to its arrival. There is a deep part of me that wants to get on with it. There is another part that worries about how warm our cold-season has become. Yes, I am from Maine, which has different--colder and snowier--habits. Also, old people always think the snow was better when they were young. Yet I do believe that twenty years ago--when we moved to Massachusetts--there was more snow and more cold here than there is now. The pictures of my children--now much older--featured quite a bit of snow. We would go sledding on a hill near here. We would build snow-people. The youth group shoveled out the church regularly. It was normal and lovely. These days around here, it usually shows up in one massive three-day snowstorm in the spring. That strangeness gets to you. It contributes to my eco-anxiety in a big way. ![]() There will be more on eco-anxiety later, I am sure. Right now, though, I have to get back to work. so I am leaving you with a few pics of today's largely-invisible suburban snow event, a couple of the old youth group "Snow Crew" in action, and a link to this video of Allison and I hiking during the church winter retreat in Hew Hampshire. That is the sort of thing I am prepping the dog for. We will find winter...even if it no longer comes to us.
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Adam Tierney-EliotI am a full-time pastor in a small, progressive church in Massachusetts. This blog is about the non-church things I do to find spiritual sustenance. Archives
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