Spring Snow

We all woke up today to snow, which isn’t unusual in Chicago.  But all my kids know is that we celebrated the first day of spring a couple of days ago.  “Nooo!” my son wailed as he looked out the window.  My daughter just dove back under the covers.  I agree with their sentiments.  The snow needs to go.  

Sometimes we get what we don’t expect.  What we don’t want.  But yelling no and hiding under the covers aren’t really options.  (Well, not usually).  Like a spring snow, sometimes we are ready to move on but Mother Nature has other plans. 

As a parent and a teacher I have those spring snow kind of moments all of the time.  I’m ready for spring and the kids still need the snow. I’m ready to move on and they need more time.  

Even so, I tend to rush in and try to make everything go my way.  But even shoveling like a mad woman is not going to change the fact that there is still snow coming down on this early spring day.  I have to wait.  And be still.  And try to enjoy this moment.  

Waiting is so hard.  Waiting for the snow to leave is really hard.  But the sun will shine and the snow will melt, all in its own time. Waiting is a part of being a parent and being a teacher.  (By the way, parents, you are both).  

So today, as I look out at the spring snow, I pledge to remember to wait.  To be still and watch.  To give my students and children the space and time they sometimes need.  To make the work about what they need rather than what I want. 

We can give children the space to do the work they need to do in their own time.  We can support them and love them, get ready for what they need next and wait for them. 

We can stop and notice the beauty of the moment. Where we are right now. Even in the middle of a spring snow.

There is joy in this moment.  In all moments.

We can find it together.


Suzanne Hostrawser is a mother, a teacher, a lover of much warmer weather.  She is available to work with you and your teachers to help them learn to use wait time to help students do the real work of becoming lifelong readers and writers.  Contact her today at [email protected].