Lake Snows

West Michigan experiences lake effect snows from time to time. For those not familiar with this phenomenon, when cold winds blow across the warmer waters of Lake Michigan the combination creates kind of a snow machine. The sun can be shining and we can get a foot of snow. Drive inland a couple of miles and it is a sunny, though frigid day. It can be confusing the first time one experiences lake effect snow. It doesn't seem to make any sense; heavy snow, barely visible sun, no clouds. Yet, there it is---a snowy day. The sound of the wind, the blowing flakes, but there are no clouds. Life is like this sometimes. We can sort of see it out there in the haze, we know what we want it to look like, but the picture we see doesn't fit what we tell ourselves we should be seeing. In life we try to "do something" to make the picture clearer. In lake effect snow there is nothing we can do to make it stop or the sun to shine. The snow falls regardless of what we do.  Maybe we should see life as if it were lake effect snow. It's there, it's blowing, it doesn't seem to make sense sometimes, and it comes whether we are there or not. Perhaps, we should treat life the same way we do lake effect snow---there isn't anything we can do about it.  Except, of course, to shovel a path through the drifts.