Before the Snow

Izumi Tanaka
2 min readFeb 16, 2023

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It started snowing around 4pm yesterday while I was at the gym. It was in forecast, so it wasn’t a surprise. What we never know is how much we’d get. While it was very light dusting snow to begin with, it became heavier and heavier within a couple of hours. By the time I finished my workout session and was ready to go home, it was almost a blizzard. My 3-minute drive was more like 8-minute drive as I could hardly see the road with big snowflakes coming directly at my windshield.

Even though we’ve had a significant amount of precipitation in the last month or so in California, we’re told it was still not enough to mitigate the severe drought. And while I was getting excited about the prospect of having a Super Bloom of wild flowers this spring, they say there’s still no guarantee as of yet. It will depend on how much more rain (or snow) we’d get between now and March whether those wild flowers would present their spectacular show.

So I’m good to get any amount of snow we can have on our mountains at this point. Even with almost weekly snowfall lately and last night’s blizzard only brought about 2.5 inches of snow, we still haven’t seen the kind of accumulation we used to see around here. All of our mountain communities can use our aquifer replenished so that our wells would be able to provide good water for all of us.

Despite the temperature drop before the snow on the weekend, we managed to get out to our favorite trail to take in the fresh air, the blue sky, and hear the wind. Anyone can attest, especially after having gone through the pandemic (can’t believe it’s been 3 years!), that being in the nature is good for us. I’ve learned personally the benefit of being amongst the trees and bushes, the birds, all other critters who call these forests home. Now I’m learning how to reciprocate as a human who live among them. How can I be a better steward to the place I call home? How can I care better? As I watch the snow clouds roll in in the field, I’m contemplating on the work in front of me. How can I help? What does the Earth needing us, human species, to do?

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Izumi Tanaka
Izumi Tanaka

Written by Izumi Tanaka

Life is a beautiful swirl of mindfulness practice, soulful images & stories. Green living expert as a Green Realtor (DRE# 02046770)

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