The Road Less Traveled

As I look back over the events of this week, snow is the standout story.  We have all been doing our fair share of shoveling, skidding, stomping, and sliding.  I have had extra time with my son on his three consecutive snow days playing chess, building dinosaur puzzles, and composing letters to the family that are hanging all over our house.    

I like to watch people deal with the snow.  Some love it and embrace it.  Some hate it and endure it.  Some get out in their driveways right after it falls and start shoveling.  These are the people with bags of Ice Melt, a plethora of various sized shovels, and a snow blower – a snow blower!  Other households hunker down inside and hope their cars make it over the mound of snow at the curb.    

Normally our driveway goes untouched, making the walk from the front door to the car akin to walking a tight rope.  It’s treacherous at best, especially in heels.  With this round of snow, I am determined to shovel a path to the cars.  We tromp outside with our solitary, warped orange shovel and realize this is a battle we are not going to win.    

I start chopped at the sheets of ice determined to find concrete.  All I want is a path.  I look across the street and my neighbor’s driveway is perfectly shoveled, salted, and swept – swept!  It’s almost dry.  We have mounds of snow and ice and one mangled shovel.

As I reflect on my trials and tribulations in the driveway, I notice that people approach snow a lot like they approach life.  Adults and kids view life so differently.  Kids rejoice when it’s a snow day.  They pile on gear, head outside, and take on the elements.  The newness of snow sparks their curiosity and creativity as they build snowmen and find new hills to scale and plummet down.  Life is one big adventure and meant to be enjoyed.   They enjoy the ride and don’t worry about the bumps. 

Adults do the opposite.  We worry about the unknown dangers life brings and huddle inside.   We try to play it safe and stay where we are comfortable.  Bumps and hills?  Nope.  We won’t come into contact with them if we stay inside…right?  We don’t want to slide or lose control. 

But the trouble is… we won’t get anywhere if we stay inside in life.  If we don’t take risks, step into a different world than we are used to, and see what it has to offer, we will never find out that snowballs are fun to throw and hills are fun to go down in inflatable tubes. 

We may have one path that is paved, safe and frequently traveled, but that doesn’t extend beyond our front driveway.  I’m sure that with a little ice melt and the right shovel, we could make new paths in life that would be worth traveling.

Maybe in this wintry season, we should take a note from the aptly named poet, Robert Frost,

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by.

And that has made all the difference.”

It is sometimes on the road less traveled where we find our greatest joys and our greatest triumph.  In a season that usually gets me down – literally…it’s slick out there – I am going to try to be more like a kid…tromp through it and mess it up a little.  What could it hurt?  I just got these really cute BCBG snow boots to do just that.  And on the road less traveled, I think we learn more about ourselves too.  I think it is part of the “difference. “   If we take a step of faith on a path we’ve never been on, we start believing.