“Winter storms have hit large areas of America’s east coast, dropping nearly two feet of snow, cutting electricity supplies, and causing disruption to roads and flights…”

Locked inside a small room in a hotel at the heart of Arlington, Virginia, I had been following these news reports about snowstorms for days. The storm-watch broadcast had been on day and night. First, I was excited; coming the long way from the hot weather of Egypt to the wind and snow of America seemed to me a freshening experience.

At that moment, I busied my mind with the image of me playing a snowball fight. The thought elicited a “Wow!” So, I switched off the TV that night, with a dream of the next day’s fun. That was just when the snowstorm came!

But, in the morning, life was not the same. The winter’s second biggest storm strongly hit the East Coast of the United States, leaving some of the Washington Metropolitan Area in snow between 18 and 27 inches. The entire scenery was white. The roads, shops, parks, and colorful houses all became white.

With a big “Alas!” I discovered that snowstorms are not all about the funny snowball fights — I was so naïve! They are signs of life changes. Signs of us losing control, as we are not in the first place the owners of the universe, as some arrogantly feel when they are in power!

People in the snow!?

Can you imagine that in the supermarket I had a firsthand chance to see the variety of the American society! I saw faces from different nationalities: Asians, Arabs, Hispanics, Africans, and Chinese. I heard different tongues: English, French, Spanish, and Arabic. Of course, I was not familiar with what they were shouting about, but I was pretty sure they were talking about what might be missing in their kitchens when the storm rages.

Cleaning my windowpane, I saw people in the streets doing just one thing: hurrying to the supermarkets to buy food out of fear of being “imprisoned” for days inside their homes because of the bad weather. I could not let this go; I grabbed my camera and made my way to the city’s center of interest: the supermarket! There, and only there, I found people moving. It was like a race; everybody was rushing everywhere to get his or her needs, as if there would be no tomorrow. The situation was alarming! I am familiar with the Americans’ love for shopping, but that was not the normal, relaxed shopping day. I felt it was like a society getting prepared for a disaster.

At the end of that day, right before leaving the supermarket, I realized that some shelves that had included products like milk and bread were totally — literally — empty.

When I asked a couple of residents of Washington, D.C. about the weather, they surprisingly  replied  such storms are the strongest in the past  90 years. Such weather was new to them. Some linked this to the global warming, and swore that the next years might be worse. Walking the streets while it was snowing, I did not feel the cold; I was deeply thinking of the seriousness of the situation. I then realized that very few of us, humans, are aware of the nature’s changes and of the gift that was given to us: the universe.

At times of hardship, very few of us stop their daily routine and their being taken by the “system” to shovel their roads and to remove the ice of their day-to-day life so that they might do good things. Very few of us stop to clean up the way so that they can feel the suffering of those experiencing difficulties — those who strive for their sense of humanness, their well-being, and their values. 

Let’s make is snowsome!

Once the second snowstorm stopped, we were stricken by the news of a third storm. Again, the same scene was under way. The supermarkets got overcrowded with “racers,” and the roads became whiter. All schools, offices, and places of worship, as well as the underground and bus services, were shut down. The storm had the upper hand!

But the American spirit of fun was not hidden under the layers of snow. At the heart of the storms, “snow bars” serving hot drinks were set in the streets of Washington, D.C. You just need to watch those folk playing the snowball fight or shoveling the sidewalks to make way for tables to serve coffee. They were trying to make something positive out of the storms.

Later, when the weather started to get a little bit better, the “Snowsome” or “Snow Awesome” appeared in the news to refresh people. It is a media initiative that encourage people to take funny photos and videos and share them on TV or online. That lifted the spirits a little bit and gave some life to the cities, which were in whiteout conditions.

Positivity was a good thing that I observed during the third snowstorm. It has indeed alleviated the difficulty of the situation.

Um, are we done yet?

Snowstorms have gone. Despite the piles of snow, which may look like small mountains on the sidewalks, life returns. But the question is, what have we got out of that unexpected state other than becoming experts in the “supermarket racing”?

Maybe I have to post this question online for the Americans to answer. It would be interesting to know how they view such times when things become out of control — when life changes to what it wants to be, not to we plan to make it.

As I always believe, whatever you witness and wherever you are, in the middle of the desert or under showers of snow, you have to value all experiences. You have to make use of what you have learned from difficulties, so that you may think outside the box.