not in the mood

Yeah, I'm just not in the mood today for going backwards in time with bad memories.  Maybe it's the cold gray day, maybe it's the quietness and calm in the house, or the hope of newness coming with the new year just ahead.  I don't know.  I just feel like sharing something fun and humorous.  I did tell you that I can laugh about the past now,didn't I and with God's help I have gotten past those hateful, hurtful feelings. 
It's a different thing, forgiving---from---forgetting.  Forgetting may mean someone hasn't dealt with it at all,but merely suppressed it...it being too difficult to think about.  Forgiving means that your emotions can't be roused to affect you any longer in adverse ways, though you may be able to remember the incidents exactly as they happened, as if it were yesterday. 
I have loads of cool memories, as well.  And one of those is what I want to share today.  I remember when, (Will not start out that way very often,I promise.)  my brothers and sisters and I wanted to go outside to play in the snow.  We were too poor to own the proper snow gear for children.  So, we improvised.  We used dad's long socks for leggings, and two sets of mittens and/or gloves to cover over the holes in the fingers of the other set.  And to make our shoes stay nice and warm, we took plastic bread bags and rubber bands for our boots.  They worked really well for sliding on the ice ! 
On one of those rare snow-days from school, we bundled-up and took out the front door.  To our surprise, the snow had drifted all the way up to the porch ,which was five feet  high above the front yard.  All of us went running off the porch, jumping into the huge mass of that cold, white pillow of snow.  Soon, a snowman was constructed, as well as a fort.  And shortly after that, snowballs were flying everywhere.
There was a strange thing about our front yard.  It was tiered. A stair-step system had been cut into the hill that we lived on, to prevent erosion.  So, with all the deep snow that had come down the night before, the snow literally eliminated that gap.  Looking out across the front yard, all we could see was the level, snowy landscape; the hill's drop-off wasn't visible in the least.
My sister decided that it was firmly packed snow that had spread over the front.  She yelled that she was going to run out to the end of the hill.  We turned to see what fun she was having in the snow, but all of us gasped, as we watched our elder sister disappear from view, right before our eyes!  The snow had swallowed her up in an instant!
We ran to what we thought was the end of the hill, and saw nothing.  No coat, no scarf, no head, no hat, nothing!  Being the hypochondriac that I was, I immediately started screaming that she must be 'suffocating' underneath all that snow.  It was as if my sister had caused an avalanche to cave-in all around her.
The next thing we did was to yell for our dad.  Dad to the rescue!  It had snowed so much that not many got out on the roads that day, and so neither had our dad.  But , dad used any excuse not to work, but to hang-out and drink.
We were all breathless, after running through the deep snow to the house.   Trying to tell him all at once that our older sister had disappeared in the snow, through gasps and shivers wasn't accomplished much.  But by the fear in our eyes, he got the gist of what we were explaining. 
Dad immediately ran outside, with coat still in hand.  I remember watching him putting on his coat, as he went half-running, half-jumping through the snow.   He hollered at us to show him where she went over the edge, and we did our best to point out the area, though there was no sign of footprints or anything.   Just like it was water in pond, dad dove into the snowy bank, not fearful for himself at all.   It was like watching a snow plow, as he tore-up that hill of snow trying to find his daughter. 
After a short while , that seemed like 'forever' to me, he had hold of her coat and hurriedly found her head and brushed the snow from her face.  She seemed like she was asleep, but looked up at dad and smiled.  Later , she said that everything was dark, and soon she felt warm and just asleep. She thought she was dreaming ,she said.
Mom had hot chocolate waiting for us, and we all warmed-up before going out again that very day.  Snow was a precious toy that came around only at certain times, and we couldn't waste it's good use.  I hated winter , but the fun we could have in the snow almost made it all worth the stinging pain of fingers and toes.
We'll never know if my sister had passed-out from lack of air, or if she had hit her head on the cold hard ground, or if she had nearly frozen to death.  The first seems more likely to me.
It's amazing how a terrifying event can be so quickly shaken-off and one resume normal activities, especially when you're a kid and snow is all around you....see