OneJerusalem.com

Snow has not been a word in my vocabulary for about ten years. The only use I’ve ever had for snow was for skiing, which is one thing about America that I truly miss. Other than skiing, its only been a nuisance at best and plain awful at worst.

However, since all this time has past, snow for me has become more of a distant relative who I don’t get to see again and quite frankly, wish to only see in a photo album as opposed to having over for coffee and cake. Yet, in the past ten years sometimes I envision memories I have from years ago growing up on the beach block on Beach 130th Street in Belle Harbor, Queens, NY. One pleasant memory was fresh snowfall in the middle of the night. The air was soft and cold and the sky was a deep purple. The snow, fresh and virgin – no footprints or tracks in it. I remember staring at it from my front porch. It has a silver hue to it in the moonlight. Thousands of layers of sparkling flakes that reflected back upwards gave me the notion that diamonds had to be buried beneath the top layers of snow. Breathing in the cold, soft air was so soothing. It was almost Divine.

So, three weeks ago, for the first time in ten years, I experienced snow. I was in Jerusalem and late for rehearsal. Being no stranger to Jerusalem, I felt like a tourist once again. My eyes were nearly stretching out of my head and marveling at the white football pitch at Gan Sacher and the snow hanging from roofs, balconies and mountain tops. I couldn’t help but be excited while at the same time feeling like a hypocrite because I kept on repeating, “I hate snow! I hate snow! I HATE SNOW”!!

After parking my car, I deliberately stomped into a slush puddle (G-d how I HATED those) and cold wet seeped into my shoes. That familiar cold, wet feeling embraced my feet and I only starting craving a huge mug of “Swiss Miss Instant Hot Coco”. (NOT available in Israel – I assure you).

Before I got to the building where the theater company I was working with rehearsed, I turned around, sighed and thought, “it really isn’t that bad seeing you again”.