And in a similar vein since I was reminded by the current snowfall...

It's snowing again, big, soft, fluffy flakes that cover the dirty ridges of refrozen slush left from earlier falls with a clean white blanket. Christmas card beauty is restored, sound is muffled, the world seems calmer and less frantic. Of course, cars are slipping and sliding, losing traction and getting stuck, drivers cursing as their wheels spin helplessly. People pass by walking fast, hands in pockets, hoods pulled high over their ears, intent only on reaching their destinations with maximum speed. A few stop to help the stranded drivers, gloved hands pushing against snow covered cars, trying to move them clear of trouble.

In the midst of all the cold chaos, a boy, almost three, falls to his knees in the soft snow and laughs. His nose is already red, his cheeks rosy, snow covers his pants and collects in the tops of his boots. He doesn't care. His eyes shine as he rolls in the snow. The snow is soft and white, his toes are warm and dry deep inside his hand-me-down boots, his fingers are snug inside striped gloves. Padded jacket and pants protect him from the weather and he is having fun. To him, the boots and pants are new wonders, the key to exploring a magical world of whiteness that he doesn't remember from the winter before. To him, it's all new.

Climbing to his feet, his eyes sparkle as he looks up briefly.

"Jump!" He jumps over another ridge of snow and giggles. "One more time!" and falls to his knees in the snow again.

The innocent, timeless joy of a child for whom time doesn't matter. There is no duty, no responsibility, no reason to hurry, no deadline, all are foreign concepts to him, expectations for other people. The only thing that is important to him, the only thing that matters, is this moment, and the snow.

As Rita Mae Brown is quoted as saying, "I finally figured out that the only reason to be alive, is to enjoy it."

If there is no time to enjoy any part of it, then there's something not working in your life. All too often people forget that life isn't one big thing, it's lots of little things all joined together. And they're not joined together in any neat, compartmentalized pattern where each has its own separate place where it belongs and will stay, they're all tangled together in one seemingly chaotic mess, touching together, tangling, merging, twisting and joining without obvious order or even meaning. Yet as a whole, this tangled, barely organized chaos works. Or it should do.

People who view life as one big thing that they have to 'get right' will always find themselves disappointed. there will always be something that could be better, bigger newer or more abundant, there will always be something missing.

Those who view life as being made up of many small pieces all joined together have more chance of getting the overall balance, the bigger picture, 'right'. Whatever 'right' means for them. There will probably always be parts that they wish were better, bigger, newer, shinier, not so dull or boring, or just plain wrong. However, hopefully there will be enough parts that are right, good, fun and exciting to balance them out and in the end make the good parts outweigh the bad parts when taken as a whole. That, is what makes a good life, not your bank balance, what car you drive or how many pairs of shoes you have.

Looking at life as a collage of smaller pieces, snapshots, there will be some that stand out and almost seem to glow with a life of their own, those are the moments and memories that have the power to make the whole of life a little brighter and better. Of course that does mean it's necessary to actually take the time to notice those moments in the first place, as they're happening, and not simply later as a good memory. Remembering a time when you were happy and enjoying life is one thing, realizing it at the time, as it is happening, is another. It requires time, something too many people don't make, to grab, enjoy and savour those moments - like playing in the snow, stopping to smell freshly bloomed roses, pausing to listen to the wind and the birds in the trees or letting warm summer rain fall on bare skin and savouring the feel of grass between your toes rather than simply hurrying to get from A to B as quickly as possible.

So it took us a little longer to get to the store and back in the snow that day, so what? Did it matter? Not in the slightest in the scheme of things. There was nothing that was so important that a small boy couldn't have the time to enjoy what, for him, was perfect moment.