Snirt

Do you ever think, “Fine. I’ll try and meditate again even though I’m sure it won’t do any good”?
I’ll be honest. I do.
Sometimes the last thing in the world I want to do is meditate.
But that’s usually when I need it most.
So I can let go of all that is going on in my head and heart.
And abide.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Welcome to A Hit of Hope.

Transcript

Do you ever think,

Fine,

I'll try and meditate again,

Even though I'm sure it won't do any good?

I'll be honest,

I do.

Sometimes the last thing in the world I want to do is meditate.

But that's usually when I need it most.

So I can let go of all that is going on in my head and heart and reset.

See things anew.

Inhale.

Exhale.

Welcome to a hit of hope.

Often in my creative writing classes,

I will ask my students what their favorite and least favorite words are.

Just the other day,

My students said,

Luscious and willow were favorites,

As was batholith,

Which I learned is a layer of the earth.

A perennial least favorite is moist.

One student said doozy was a least favorite,

A word I use all of the time.

Now,

A word that sounds as ugly as it is in reality is snurt.

Anyone living in a cold climb will know what snurt is.

It's when the snow gets old and coated in dirt.

Nothing pristine or beautiful about it.

It is U-G-L-Y,

Ugly.

And snurt usually arrives when we are already tired of winter,

But still have months of it to go.

It was probably hard enough to get yourself to settle and meditate.

You might be thinking to yourself,

Why in the world do I want to think about snurt?

Because most of us humans long for the new,

The fresh,

The wondrous,

And snurt could be seen as the ordinary,

The long,

Straight,

And boring road of life,

Where what was beautiful and new has grown worn and dirty.

Snurt could also be the thing,

Whatever that might be,

That refuses to go away.

Snurt could also be seen as the transitional,

The liminal,

The space between.

Many who are wise see the liminal as a holy place,

A thin place,

Where the divine and the ordinary brush up against one another.

If you have ever seen a pile of snurt,

You might be wondering what I've been smoking.

And if you haven't,

Trust me,

As I said,

Snurt is u-g-l-y,

Ugly.

So how could it be a liminal space,

Where the divine and the ordinary brush up against one another?

This winter,

The more I look at snurt,

The more I see it has its own beauty.

You just have to be willing to look hard to see it.

Not even that.

You have to look at this ordinary thing with a sense of delight and wonder.

And when you do,

You might notice that there are often icicles hanging off the piles,

Icicles that catch and play with the golden light.

Sometimes there are hollows in the snurt piles,

And you can almost imagine a little rabbit curling up inside.

Or it could remind you of when you were a kid and you created hamster-like havens of tunnels under the piles of snow.

Sometimes the snow in these piles has melted and refrozen so many times that it has created thin and delicate flakes of ice that look like the lace my grandmother used to crochet.

But you have to look closely to see this.

You have to look kindly to see this.

You have to look at the pile of snurt and see it as a place where snow that was born close to the stars came down and said,

Hello dirt.

How lovely to meet you.

Namaste.

Reviews

Well Betsy, all my 66 years of living in Sask, Canada, I have never heard the name for the yucky dirty snow! My new word for the day, maybe I can use it in one of my Scrabble game..

I wish I had known this word shirt earlier. The first time I took my Southern wife back to Massachusetts in the winter and she saw her first snowfall, like all of us she thought it was absolutely beautiful. I told her to just wait a few days. Later we were walking the dog and she just kept saying how gross it all looked, how hard and dangerous it felt now. What happened to the beautiful snow? I remember saying to her if the snow didn't end up looking like this after days or weeks after it first fell, you wouldn't appreciate how beautiful it looked when it was pristine and white.
I love the perspective you used on this, the divine meeting the dirty, this liminal place. Thats always where the magic happens. 💙
As always, wow.
Namaste 🙏

Well, well, well. You have made my day! I have lived in sunny Cali for over 60 years. Next week I move to Utah to live near Son and his family. I will now appreciate Snirt, because of your creative way of expressing its importance.
I will see a lot of it next winter. LOL
Thanks Betsy.

I leave Ohio for good in a week. The manic schedule has me missing quite a bit of sleep, and meditating (I still make time twice daily) is more like nap time, as I seem almost always to doze immediately.
So yes, I suffer the loss of meditation, and force myself to make more time, after which I am invariably happy that I did.
Besides, the book that comes from this trip should be spectacular.
Thank you once more, Betsy, and namaste.

Wonderful way to look at snirt! Thank you for you meditations! They are the best!!!

What an absolutely beautiful way of thinking! That was so positive in a very unconventional way! I loved this! My sincere thanks. Namaste

Snirt is a new word for me but living in NE I'm 👀 a lot of it right now! Love the truth in your talks. TY Betsy, Namaste 💚🙏🥀

I love you Hits of Hope. Don’t stop. I really liked this one. Thank you

Loved your voice and delivery but snirt is now one of my least favourite words lol

Your tip to look for the thing that doesn't go away was very helpful. The thing I keep trying to get rid of has its own purpose and beauty.

Why am I not surprised in the least that you teach creative writing? I always wonder about the backgrounds and/or training teachers here have had in writing and in voice. I've admired your voice skills -- tone, cadence, so much expression — since the first meditation of yours I listened to. You infuse the words you speak with so much life. [Also, I should learn to never try to write a review on my phone. It just messes things up and won’t let me edit.]

I'd never heard of snirt, a new word for me but could relate to message of talk. A lot of truth there

I haven't been around snow for decades and I had forgotten about snirt. But I have been thinking about the liminal lately, which is one of my favorite words.
Funny and insightful. Thanks

That was a doozy of a meditation Betsy, if a little moist...lol 😄 You can never see the astonishing beauty of the ordinary world, the "boring" world until you lose the ability to experience it in the way you used to. No matter what you imagine, you cannot possibly understand what it's like to lose the right to live in the Kingdom of the Ordinary. I'll never be able to get back there, I'll never be "normal" again (I was never really normal anyway) I'm the Snirt that most people just don't want see, the weirdo who doesn't "do" life like everyone else does it, who reminds people of all the very bad things that can happen (and in an instant) But Snirt is also a combination of the two things essential for life, dirt and water, the boring and the ordinary. I'm pretty proud of being a Snirt because neither dirt nor water are ordinary or boring. I think that you're a Snirt too Betsy, you're doozalicious and you fucking rock! 🤘 Namaste 🙏🌟

Well I've learnt a new word in the early hours here downunder😊
We do not get snow up here in the Bay of Islands......infact, not even rain at the moment! BUT when we do I love to look at how the drops glisten on the ponga leaves and the scent of the bush surrounding the property wafts through the air.......not about to do a "Rebecca" here....as its late or should I say very early lol....but wish to sincerely thank you for your inights

Thank you for this. You have a gift with words. Namaste

I always love to listen to your hits of hope. Thank you 🍀💚☯️

As an upstate victim of SMIRT. I have a new appreciation of the wintery world I live in.
Thanks Betsy 🐧🙏🏻