weather report

"Hey Ma, guess what?". It's Sunday morning, post-yoga class and I'm sitting in Coffee Talk when my cell phone rings and Kalei's name appears on the screen. "What?" I respond bravely, thinking, "oh, God, what next?". "It's snowing!" she replies. "I was doing homework and when I looked out my window I noticed it wasn't raining properly. Then I heard people saying, "It's snowing!", and now everyone's outside in it. Oh, I see Ana out there...ok, Mom, I just wanted to tell you that. Bye!". It's the first time this girl has seen snow fall from the sky, and she called to share the moment with me. How very cool. The excitment was contagious: perhaps my voice rose, because I saw a few folks nearby in the this Hawaii coffee shop smiling, perhaps recalling a lovely snowfall in their past, or one they hoped to experience in the future.

There is nothing like seeing your first snowfall, and to those who grow up in the tropics, the experience can be magical, miraculous, and fearsome. Many years ago I traveled to the East Coast with a co-worker and friend from Wai'anae, and I'll never forget the amazement in her face as she watched snow sift from the sky, lining the lawns and coating the gray tree branches. She was afraid to venture out into it, preferring to sit bundled up inside toasty and warm at the window, watching it fall for hours. More recently I was in Washington DC with a delegation of people from the Marshall Islands when a surprise springtime snowstorm hit. Some of the visitors simply stayed in their hotel, even passing up visits to the Congressional representatives. Others, notably the younger ones, simply had to "go out and explore the astonishment of living", as one of their wise and poetic elders put it. And when I got back home, the college parent's email network was a-buzz with the news of calls from kids about the snowfall--apparently an unusual occurance in this part of Northern California. Expected or unexpected, perhaps it is the job of the young, to help us elders see our truly astonishing world afresh.