When I started working as assistant at Trinity Church, Buffalo, the rector, knowing I had grown up mostly in the South, and who was from Tennessee himself, told me not to expect many snow days now that I was in snow country.       

        A snow day meant no school, but it also meant that the adults were more likely to be home. Life took on a special, festive sense, and we would have hot chocolate, go outside and play in the snow until our hands were frozen and we could no longer feel our feet. One snow day in Colorado grew into several days of being snowed into our neighborhood, and when the power went out, all of the neighbors pooled the meat in their freezers, and we had a block-wide cookout.

         It was as if all the world (well, our small world, anyway) paused from its rushing about, hunkered down inside, and reverted to a simpler life. I met some neighbors that I had never met, and heard stories my parents had never told before.

        Living in an area where there is no time for snow days, except under very severe conditions, leads to the idea that almost nothing can get in the way of work. Even relationships with our spouses and children and our church take a back seat to work schedules, including our relationship with God.

        And while we may not feel a need to take a snow day from work, maybe we need to allow ourselves to slow down a bit, to alter our schedules slightly when it is -7 degrees on our way to work, or when it snows so much that you can't keep up with the shoveling.

        If we can't even allow ourselves a snow day, maybe our souls could benefit from a "God day" every now and then, where we pick the kids up from school, turn off the television and electronics, and huddle in the living room for ghost stories and stories about our families on special occasions and times of hardship. That down time will find a way of exacting itself from us, eventually, even if we don't take it intentionally, with illness, kids acting out and needing extra attention, marital stress that will need to be worked on in less favorable circumstances.

        Our souls need changes in our routine, and snow days provide that. Who's going to bring the marshmallows?