It has been snowing since Friday evening here in Edinburgh. On Sunday early afternoon, 
my two boys and I went outside to dig out our toys in the garden as well as to clear our car from the snow that is parked on a side road. We potentially wanted to go somewhere by car that day, but did not have any definite plans. Clearing the car from snow, we did not have any time pressure.
We employed all plastic shovels or shovel-looking objects we could find under the snow in our garden. The boys seemed to be enjoying shovelling the snow. Looking at their happiness, I also started to joyfully clear the snow from the roof and the sides of the car. Although everything around us was covered with the snow, it felt quite warm; all three of us seemed happy.
Across the road, a woman was also digging her car out of the snow. I smiled at her and asked if it was fun. She answered “I would not put it that way!” I shared that my boys 
seem to be enjoying it greatly. She said “they enjoy the novelty of it”.
This was the end of our chit-chat, and I continued with digging and scraping. I wondered why we adults cannot do the same as the children and just enjoy the activity. Why do we get stressed in such situation? What prevents us from lighting with joy at the opportunity to shovel some fresh snow around?
We view the snow as a challenge, we resist it. We get stressed that we will be late for the gathering at our friend’s house this afternoon. Most probably however other people who were going to come to the friend’s place are also snowed in and will be late. We forget however to take it into account and rush ourselves with clearing the car.
In half an hour the car will be cleared, and you will be able to drive off depending on the conditions of the side road where the car is parked. You feel quite stressed and resentful though. Imagine a different scenario, where you spend this half an hour with joy, because your chose to, achieving the same result feeling happy.
So you are in front of your car which is covered with snow. You nip back into the house to get a dustpan and a brush if you do not have anything more dedicated to shovelling snow. And old credit card no longer in use that is lying around is also quite handy for scraping the ice from the car’s windows. You can even quickly look up the advice on ehow.com for example on How to Remove Snow and Ice From Your Car.
While you are in the house put on yourself an extra layer of cloths and make a hot chocolate to fill a termos flask to take with you outside. Grab a feeling of joy and start digging and scraping! In half an hour you will have the same result as above: your car will be cleared from the snow and depending on the state of the road you will be able to drive off in no time. And how you feel during this half an hour – is your choice. You can be grumpy and cursing the snow or you can be enjoying the experience.
If working with a shovel in snow is just not your thing you might choose to just phone your friend to say you are not going to make it this time. You can use this time that suddenly fell into your hands to do something at home that you always wanted to do but there was never time for this.
If you find it difficult to heat the whole flat or house because you are watching your budget,
just pick one room and heat it to a comfortable level. Kitchen is our favourite because we can also make dinner in the oven that provides additional heat. Get a tea and a snack ready, pull over your favourite chair and watch that DVD you always wanted to watch or start reading that book that has been waiting for you on the night table for a while now.
All these pleasant things can be done with joy instead of resisting the snow. We had a very enjoyable Sunday with the boys playing in snow outside in the garden and drawing and decorating a poster Christmas tree at home.
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