Whenever we get a large snowfall in Minnesota, I’m reminded of the time I was saved by a snow angel. We were being whomped with a massive blizzard and I was scheduled to work at a bookstore until 11:00 p.m. By the time the boss said it was okay for me to leave, it was too late: my car got completely stuck in the middle of a city street. I was miles from home, it was well after dark, freezingly cold, and I was covered in snow up to the hem of my skirt. There wasn’t a person or a lit house in sight; everyone else was nestled snugly in their beds.
Those were pre-cell phone times. Knowing that if I left my car in the middle of the street it would become snowplow road kill — something my bookstore salary couldn’t afford — I was using the rarely-effective problem-solving method of “wringing my hands and moaning” when a figure appeared out of nowhere. One moment nobody was there, and the next a guy was setting a can of beer down on my snow-covered hood and shoveling out my wheels. He didn’t say a word. Once he had the underside of the car cleared, he motioned me into the front seat, and with him pushing, we managed to get my vehicle out of harm’s way to the side of the road. He waved off my offer of payment and disappeared into the storm (with his presumably now ice-cold beer in hand). I remembered that a friend of mine lived only a couple of blocks away, and I showed up unannounced on her doorstep at midnight to be welcomed with hot cocoa, dry clothes, and a pull-out sofa.
That episode is one of the times, for me, when the idea of a bigger force at work in my life seems not only possible, but probable. Both at the time and in my memory, my snow angel feels like a figure from far outside of everyday reality: popping up between snowflakes just in time to deal with my crisis, and then vanishing silently and completely. Besides, it’s somehow fitting that any angel of mine would be chugging beer out of a can rather than a headier celestial brew.
Some young writers (like some professionals) really struggle with writing at times, and my experience is that it’s important to tell them that this is a perfectly normal part of the creative act. Wrangling words onto paper requires us to face down challenges. The trick is to continue to push yourself out into the creative storm, into the places where your writing will get stuck — because where you get stuck is also the place you can grow. Or at least, the place where you can learn to accept miracles.
Writing well is hard. If you’re not challenging yourself as a writer, you can turn into writing road kill. Besides: angels need a reason to show up.
Well said. Here’s to a year of pushing ourselves “out into the creative storm.”
Anita, I hope that in 2020, all of your creative storms come accompanied with corresponding angels of enlightenment!
I appreciate your message of struggling with writing (I am putting of getting started again after two weeks off, which is why I am writing this comment!) but it was the angel story that really touched me. I had a similar experience one cold night when I was lost after doing a book talk, uncertain as to how to find the main road that would lead to home. No snow was falling at the time but it was a bone-chilling January night and I had a child with me. A cigarette-smoking stranger offered to lead me with his car to the road I needed to go on. Apprehensively, I agreed to… Read more »
Anne, what a metaphor your story presents for the way that the creative process often works out for me: uncertainly (even apprehension at times), until I take a leap of faith and, with a little guidance and a lot of seeming miracles, I manage to find my way safely! I hope that 2020 has many such occasions in store for both of our writing lives!
Loved this story, Lisa. Angels abound!
Thank you, Joyce! May angels guard both your writing road trips AND your journeys along Minnesota’s snowy roads this winter!
Well said, Lisa. I had something like that happen to me more than once. Help showed up just when I needed it. Guess that happens in many ways, and we can also be that help to others. Thanks for the encouragement to keep going (and trusting) even when the blizzard winds of winter blow. Happy New Year.
Mange takk and Happy New Year to you too, Heidi! I love your reminder that we are often given opportunities to be angels to others – I’m now going to make that a big and deliberate part of the planning I’m currently doing to make 2020 a year to remember!
Love this – a wonderful reminder! thank you!
Thank you, Melanie! I hope that your writing path is full of angels this year (beer-guzzling or not)!
You always have the best stories, Lisa!
David, thank you, that’s a huge compliment – especially coming from you! I hope that both of us have many opportunities to add amazing tales to our story storehouses in the coming year!