This morning when I looked out at this white bounty bestowed upon our yard, my first response was “What beauty--so lacy and bright white!” My immediate next response was to notice how my normally upright trees were bowed so low. Hearing their moans and groans, I ran for a broom to brush burdens from each piece of greenery within my reach. This was more important to me than shoveling our seventy-five foot drive.
As I went from tree to tree, some needed only a light touch from the broom to drop their snow. Others were more stubborn. I had to shake the branches. But when the snow finally fell, I could almost hear “thank yous“ as the branches swooped back up to their normal positions. Unfortunately, even after I removed snow from the evergreen we always decorate with lights at Christmas, its branches have not yet bounced back to their beautiful conical shape.
This exercise of blogging has gotten me thinking about what I do and why I do it. Do other people hear trees groan and say thank you? Am I over-identifying with the trees? How much of creation is mine to care for? Am I willing to be shaken to relieve too-heavy burdens? If only the boundaries on my caregiving responsibilities/opportunities were as easy to recognize as the lines Paul drew in the snow for our shoveling a path in the driveway!
