"Always Winter, but Never Christmas"

The past few days have been a whirlwind--at times almost literally. I don't ever watch the news, nor do I regularly check the weather. I have my reasons for this, but because of this limitation, I rely on others to know when a huge storm is supposedly coming (though even then predictions are not always reliable). I went from knowing nothing on Sunday morning, to hearing whispers of Snowpocalypse on Sunday night, to hearing murmurings on Monday, to hearing panicked roars on Tuesday. Abby and I were mostly prepared (though why we don't have a regular-sized functioning flashlight is beyond me), and because of gracious companies that value employees, we were both able to leave early on Tuesday and have a snow day today, giving us a front row seat to watch the weather.

My thoughts on winter weather are if it's going to be cold, there should be snow. I'm not sure if I mean as much snow as we got last night, but some snow. I only like snow, though, because I know it will only last for a season--it will soon be gone.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but February, at least in college, was one of the most depressing months (not helped by my dorm room's decision to institute "discipline month" in the worst month of the year). I think what made February so depressing was coming off the high of Christmas, New Year's, and the break that those holidays entail. February gives a fake holiday that makes you feel like a bad boyfriend, produces bad weather, and makes the joy of Easter seem like it will never come.

This is why an image I read as a child was so powerful to me, and it remains powerful to this day. I've mentioned before that I don't think the Chronicles of Narnia are Lewis's best works (though another book has persuaded me that they are deeper than I originally thought), but they are certainly some of the most formative I've read, mainly because I read them while still young. The image is from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lewis describes the curse that the White Witch has placed over all Narnia, that it should be "always winter, but never Christmas." Forget for a moment the mixing of mythologies taking place here and consider that image: "always winter, but never Christmas." As a child, I immediately grasped the seriousness of the Narnians' situation. As an adult, I still grasp the seriousness of their situation, as well as the symbolism behind it, the seriousness of my situation. As I said, it remains one of the most powerful images I have ever read.

What about you? What's a powerful image or description you've encountered?