Shoveling a Path

This morning at 5AM our phone rang and we were told school had been cancelled due to the 6 to 8 inches of snow that was covering every road in our town. Looking out the window we could see that we were going to have some work ahead of us when the snow finally stopped. My husband works from home on Fridays, but my oldest daughter works about thirty minutes away and she cannot work from home so she was hurrying to get out the door and give herself enough time to get to work.

I decided that I would go out and clean off her car and shovel a path so that her morning would be a little easier. The snow was deep and heavy, but it did not bother me because I was happy to be giving her a leg up on an already daunting day. Soon we were working side by side to clear her car off. I am a bit anal about that part because I do not like when people drive around with snow piled on their car it looks like the person is driving an igloo. Generally the wind gets hold of a chunk of their mobile igloo and sends it careening at the vehicles behind which makes for a fun few moments as you try to save yourself from being blinded by their snow chunk!

All of this early morning excitement got me thinking about the path I had cleared for my daughter in the snow. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could do that for your children's lives? What if as parents we could see an obstruction or covered path and swoop in and clear it for our kids? We would just whip out our parental shovels and make the path much easier for our children to navigate. This concept would certainly ease my mind. I could just say "Here ya go, go this way I have cleared it for you and it is safe!"

Reality is that making it safe and having them do things our way makes it harder for them to learn life's lessons. As I look back over my life I realize that the times when I felt like my parents may have let me down, I actually grew as a person. I learned how to take care of me and not to expect that others will always jump in. There were some tough times and some hard lessons but when I had nowhere else to turn and I made the call, my Dad was there fixing my furnace or crawling under my house to check a frozen pipe.

Today I shoveled a path for my daughter and I wish that it was that easy to help all of my children, but truth is sometimes wondering off the path and creating your own path helps you find your way. I just hope that I can remember that as I watch each of my children clear the way for themselves. They will never know when they might get a call that changes their day or their life but hopefully they will know who to call when they need a little help clearing the path.