Sometimes It Seems There’s Snow Way

Early yesterday morning I went outside to clear my driveway after another snowfall. It’s a habit I picked up while my wife Cindy and I had children at home. Kids are prone to accidents and I wanted to be able to drive them to the nearest hospital for care. I also kept at least half a tank of gasoline for the same reason. Back then gasoline stations weren’t open all night. I wanted fuel enough to drive to Pittsburgh should the need arise.

I bundled myself into my clothing and prepared to clean my driveway. The sun hadn’t risen yet and the snow glowed blue. A thin crust of ice coated the fresh snow. I sighed as I started to clear the forecaster’s “1 to 3 inches,” one of many warnings I’d faced over the past few days. The gusting wind was cold and heavy with dampness. I soon tired, felt chilled, and was about to head inside when several birds landed in a nearby tree and began to sing. It lifted my spirits and I thought, “If they can sing in this weather, I can shovel more snow.”

The sun rose, but the cold and moistness remained riding the wind. Chilling again I sat on my wood-hauling wheelbarrow in the lee of my house. After warming up I returned to the task at hand and felt disheartened when I chilled once again. Clearing snow takes extra steps for me. I carry the snow across the road to dump it. The wind wants to blow snow across the road into drifts, so I just help move it farther away.

Chilled and weary, my driveway was not half way done. I was thinking of heading inside and doing a second shift when a stranger stopped and asked if I wanted the pile of snow heaped by the road moved. He had a snowplow on his truck and I said “If you could.” In about eight minutes he shifted a huge pile of snow that would have taken hours for me to move, then he refused payment. No time to head inside now. I was recharged and went back to work.

I shoveled around my car, up the walkway, and porch before heading back to finish the drive. I’d just started when the state snowplow drove up the road scraping snow and salting. That meant only one thing…on their return trip, more snow would end up in my drive. I felt a large twinge of discouragement. I’d just cleared my drive, when they returned, the snow had already been pushed back and only a small trickle ended up in my drive. Blessings can be found even on a cold morning.