Shoveling

The day before New Years Eve, 2021 I got locked out of my house.

I needed to get in so I could let in contractors for my kitchen remodel, and my wife and children were away in a house we’d rented for the holiday.

It had dropped well below freezing the night before and my deadbolt broke, so I needed to wait for a locksmith to come and help me get into my house.

It was still quite cold and I was going to have to wait at least 2 hours for a locksmith, so I figured it’d be better to get the blood moving outside rather than playing on my phone. 

I looked around, and noticed that the parking lot had not been plowed. So, I started shoveling.

The thing is the parking lot is huge. Holds like 50 cars. No way I could do the whole thing. With 2 hours and a cheap plastic snow shovel? Not happening. Too big a job.

Still, I started plugging away on my side of the parking lot when Royce, my 88-year-old neighbor, came out of his place. He told me he needed to get to the doctor and asked if I could shovel a path to his car. With his portable oxygen machine, he couldn’t do it himself. For him, the stairs to his house are a lot. Walking through the snow would be too much.

I stepped up the pace, and cleaned a nice path to his car so he could get himself to where he needed to get.

While I was shoveling, other folks started coming out of their homes to see the parking lot one-sixth-of-the-way done, and me in a beanie trying to clear more snow with a crummy plastic shovel.

One after another, folks grabbed shovels, and started clearing off their own little area of the lot, or areas around the other cars.

By the time the locksmith came to the house, the lot was fully cleared. All the snow was in nice, neat little piles.

Metaphors are dumb, but you can clear the snow.

We all can.

As long as someone starts.

Start.