Boy, was I in a bad way! Yes, Advent is about waiting, patiently grasping hope, wishing for peace, clinging to a whiff of joy, and watching for love, but my waiting and watching had been replaced by thoughts of “how much things suck.”
During my annual reading of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, I identified with Ebenezer Scrooge’s “Bah! Humbug!” while dismissing his nephew Fred’s suggestion to “…open [my] shut-up heart freely…”
And then one morning, preoccupied with the glumness of things, I came inches from steering my Volvo’s snow tires over the little snowman by our Highland Way mailboxes. I stopped the car, backtracked to where he stood unfazed, bent over his tiny shape, and felt a weightlessness come over me. He’d survived my inattentiveness, and a spirit-lifting miracle began.
I entered the world of magic and mystery into which the little snowman’s presence beckoned me.
Sitting at my desk that night, the second day of the first week of Advent, I relished the burgeoning fun and lightness the snowman brought into my life, a frame of mind and soul that led me to two old textbooks from my undergraduate and graduate days.
While thumbing through the pages of my Old Testament and English Literature texts, books that had been collecting dust for decades, I stopped at the Book of Isaiah and the poems of Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
As I skimmed through the underlined and highlighted pages, I listened to Oscar Peterson’s exciting rendition of West Side Story, my tribute to Stephen Sondheim who had died the previous month. Though unanticipated, the lyricist’s words would join Isaiah’s and Tennyson’s in my surprise Advent spiritual reawakening that night.
Isaiah, messenger of the “Holy One of Israel,” lived in Jerusalem during the 8th-Century BC, a politically turbulent period when he spoke and wrote about the assumed demise and restoration of the people of Judah. According to professor and scholar, Eugene H. Peterson, Isaiah along with the other prophets, yelled, wept, rebuked, soothed, challenged, and comforted his listeners. The prophet gave me comfort as he wrote:
Open up, heavens, and rain. Clouds, pour out buckets of my goodness! Loosen up, earth, and bloom salvation; sprout right living.
Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come from my mouth not come back empty-handed.
(The Message, Isaiah 45:8, 55:10-11)
My thoughts never drifted far from the little snowman as I read the prophet’s telling words. He’d come as a result of descending snow. An unknown creator or two had scooped up the fallen snow, pressed the flakes together into three snowballs then mounted them atop one another to form the base, body, and head of the cute little guy.
Their miracle working hands had shaped the “Highland Way Snowman” that lifted me out of my doldrums and restored the yearned for feelings of hope, peace, joy, and love that I was missing.
I imagined him doffing his twig top hat and clapping his twig hands before returning to wherever he came from in accordance with the prophet’s words:
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.
(NIV, Isaiah 55:12)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom (1850-1892), wrote In Memoriam soon after the death of his friend, A. H. Hallam, a poem Tennyson referred to as “A Way of the Soul.” I was drawn into his elegiac poem when he wrote:
His words helped restore calm to my soul:
The time draws near the birth of Christ;
The moon is hid; the night is still;
The Christmas bells from hill to hill
Answer each other in the mist.
Oh yet we trust that somehow good
Will be the final goal of ill,
To pangs of nature, sin of will,
Defects of doubt, and taunts of blood;
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That not one life shall be destroy’d,
Or cast as rubbish to the void,
When God hath made the pile complete.
(Stanza XXVlll, l. 1-5, Stanza LlV, l. 1-8)
The diminutive snowman wasn’t finished, though he’d opened my heart and soul to the spirit of Christmas, the warm embrace of hope, peace, joy, and love, he had one more surprise for me.
Oscar Peterson’s “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story, caught my attention. The lyrics, which I looked up, added to the magical mystery of the snowman’s message to me: “Could be/who knows?/There’s somethin’ due any day/I will know right away/soon as it shows/it may come cannonballin’ down through the sky/Gleam in its eye, bright as a rose.”
Merry Christmas to all, and thank you to the creator(s) of the little snowman. May you all find magic, hope, peace, joy, and love this holiday season.
by 
Fun story. My kids wait for the school bus by these mailboxes and pretty sure one of them built this little guy 🙂
Tim,
Yes, a fun story. No names were in the narrative to protect the wonderful, creative innocents and their marvelous handiwork!
Roger
The tot’s childlike attempt at building a snowman put me back to my own childhood memory of lying on my back underneath the Christmas tree to get a glimpse of what I’d see from a whole new angle. The view I saw of the round Christmas balls and colored lights looking upwards toward the ceiling was delightful for this three year old girl. It was an awesome sight. As I lay there I caught my face reflecting in one on the glass balls hanging over my head. The convex image of my face startled me. My nose was almost as big as my head, my eyes were tiny and mouth had all but disappeared. There I was, three year old Bette Jane with a whole new distorted image. Pure joy filled me with laughter and the giggles filled my heart. A whole new perspective at who I was taught me then to see things differently, from outside the box of reality. There can be joy in all things if we can just look beyond what is in front of our noses.
That image on Hillhaven Avenue over seventy five years ago to the little icy snowman under the mailboxes on Highland Way was an unexpected gift. Thank you for this early Christmas present that lifted my spirit out of a year of stress and unforeseen events….I needed this.
Bette,
What a wonderful reflection on the joys of Christmas for the three-year-old you! You describe it with an artist’s creativity that enables me to see your reflection in the bulb, surprise, laughter and joy–a great Christmas gift. And the life-long lesson to look beyond the obvious and find the marvelous. I smiled as I read your words, thank you, and keep sneaking under the tree!
Roger
A friend wrote: “Thank you for [this] encouragement, faith and hope!”
Merry Christmas
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues…but the parent of all the others.”
Thank you, my friend. A practice of daily gratitude begins now.
A friend wrote that the season, thus far, had been a depressing one, “during which my daily plodding makes me wonder if what I do has any effect.” The story reminded me that there is peace, happiness, and joy to be found in places we least expect to find them.
Welcome to the world of the little snowman, my friend.
Roger
Let’s hear it for all those dog-eared texts, and the lyrics that buoy our spirits!
Thank you, my friend, for reading and sharing your thoughts,
Roger
Hooray for the little snow-prophet!
A West Coast friend wrote: “…missed your blog and thanks for keeping me in the loop with the snowman and the Barred Owl for company!”
“Thanks for sharing, Roger.”
Your story weaving the writing/lyrics/translations/adaptations of Sondheim, Isaiah, Tennyson, two Peterson’s (Eugene and Oscar), and Dickens led in an unexpected direction. I had not known of Sondheim’s connection to WEST SIDE STORY, what I thought was solely a Bernstein creation. Got me to read the Wikipedia entry and its tale of how close this musical got to never being staged.
And perhaps that is a lesson as well. In this dark time, we need to be persistent. And yes, we need to pay attention to any source of light or lightness – something may indeed be coming.
Thank you as always for your offerings. Hope you have stayed well.
Ted,
Thank you for reading and sharing these thoughts. Creativity often comes out of contention and differences, and this musical may illustrate that. Dickens and Tennyson didn’t have it easy, and Isaiah had a thankless job much of the time. Oscar was told by critics, after he released an album of vocals, that the world already had Nat King Cole so stick to playing the piano. Eugene certainly took flack for his very readable translations, and we know about the carpenter from Nazareth. We don’t have light without the dark, and we bemoan the latter. Today, on the darkest day of the year, I cherished its presence as I enjoyed the brightness of a sunny day.
Something familiar is coming, but its arrival will be new and welcome!
Merry Christmas,
Roger
Dear Roger…. I love how you reach to the classics, to music, your favorite authors and scripture for solace and inspiration. They never let you down, do they? That is so cool how the little snowman filled you with wonder and delight lifting you out of a gloomy place. How miraculous that you even saw that little guy sitting at the side of the road! It was as if the snowman builder wanted children or those with children hearts to discover it and what an interesting place to have placed it, making it even more special to discover. Your story reminds me to keep my heart open for wondrous possibilities! Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge of the classics, novels, music, art and scripture. It truly is so impressive and deeply inspirational. Merry Christmas, dear friend.
Jo Anne,
Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts. Yes, the little guy’s random placement on the road did have a heart-opening effect, and here’s to keeping our hearts open to receive whatever the new year brings!
Roger
P.S. Not certain that I have much knowledge. I do have books to thumb through, and nimble fingers to Google-it when the books don’t answer my questions.
Thank you for sharing your gift, words and works in progress, such as we all are, helping lift our hearts, to glimpse the magic and mystery, the blessings of it all……..you weave such lovely tales and invite us along on your journey, finding joy, hope, peace, and love, with your masterful mixing of scripture, poetry, music, and more………Hallelujah and amen!
Colette,
Thanks for reading and your kind words. At the time I first “met” the snowman I was reading a story about the great sequoias and redwood trees. The little snowman lasted until the next day’s thaw while the magnificent trees last thousands of years! What a marvelous world! My hope for 2022, as many of us do, is that the flaws we bring, and the pain we inflict on each other and the wonderful tapestry that is ours will be lessened and disappear. Hope springs eternal, thank you Jesse Jackson!
Roger
A friend’s response to the little snowman was the thought that he wanted us to be kind to ourselves and each other!
An excellent Holiday Season thought.
Thank you,
Roger
I am only now becoming acquainted with the delightful little snowman. This month has been pretty much a blur for me as I sold my house of 55 years and moved into the Villa Gardens retirement community. Though I have many concerns about the future of the country, I feel very lucky to have arrived at such a stimulating and welcoming environment. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy, Hopeful New Year! Fondly. Dona
Dona,
Thank you for reading the post and commenting–always good to hear from you. Sometimes we need to have blurring in our lives while undertaking major change and selling a beloved home of fifty-five years is one of them. I hope your new home continues to embrace their new resident–they are fortunate! Wish you too a Merry Christmas and a Healthy New Year in 2022!
Roger
How wonderful to find extraordinary delight in the ordinary things of life. Your words inspire care, intentional observation, and application. Thanks
Alan,
Yes, the ordinary things of life. Exercising care, intentional observation, and then application can be a challenge when preoccupied with chatter. Thanks for reading and commenting, Alan.
Roger
Roger,
I have missed reading about your observations and insight. There is also a little bit of “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” in what you wrote. Keep up the good writing. Have a wonderful 2022. Thanks for sharing.
Cy
I
Cy,
Good hearing from you and thank you for reading and commenting on this brief tale about our friend the snowman! Thanks, too, for reminding me about “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day,” I love the song. Happy New Year!
Roger
…and then there were a few more little snowmen birthed just up the Way a week or two ago. I noticed you’re interest in them as I waded through a long phone call, parked at the entrance (phone reception goes out somewhere between there and our house). Cheers!
John,
Yes,
they watched us with glee as we shivered in the brrrrr of a winter cold spell. Thanks for reading and commenting.
Roger