Snow prints

Over the last few days I have gotten up and grumbled at the view out of my kitchen window. Is not that the view is ugly, in fact in many ways it is more beautifully than usual. It is not there is major construction, all of the landmarks are there, just as they have been. It is that their is snow. Snow needing to be shoveled, snow that will slow my commute, snow that makes everything colder wetter and sloppier than it would be with out it. The may be a sign of adulthood. My kids love snow, as I did when I was their age.

I remember a few distinct winters growing up. There was the one where the snow came so deep and fast that I couldn't walk through it. Because of my height at the time and the shoveling to clear the walks, I remember the front yard all being my waste or higher in height. I was stopped before burying myself alive trying to make a tunnel across. I remember getting a little bigger and being handed a shovel myself when I wanted to help. My dad always used a heavy iron shovel, so I could do much with it. I dragged it while I teed to walk in his foot steps. Hop, drag, hop, drag.

I never fully gave up walking in other peoples snow prints. Sometimes it is because I'm dress shoes and I'm trying to keep my feet from freezing. Other times it's just for the novelty, like walking only on the dark tiles in a store. Sometimes it's tiptoeing in the prints of my children. I've looked. I don't think most people do this, but I know SME f you do.

As you probably already know, my kids do. Not all of them, mind you and not one of them all the time. I have, though, spied the crossing a white canvas with a single set if track, hopping from print to print. Trying to leave no mark of there own, trying to only stay in the track left for them.

This is not easy work. First, people don't walk with the same gate. As a child, your kegs jus don't stretch the space left by adults and even if you can reach it, you rub the edges of the print. A game of operation where the nose lights up. If you touch the edge you are doing it wrong. Also, feet and shoes are all different size and shapes. So, you end up clipping the heel or pushing out the toe.

Fortunately, this game does not depend on perfection. In fact, as a child you won't even notice many of these things. As an adult, you look for a single perfect match, rather than thinking you can keep it up step after step. Satisfied to try your best and get better step after step.

As I loom out the window and think about these things, it occurs to me that walking in snow prints is much like the life of a Christian. It is not always easy, because the pacing feels wrong and our feet don't always fit. We need to not give up and be content to get better everyday, even if we can't do it perfectly.

"And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.". Matthew 10:38