Footprints — No, Not That One

You may know that we have had unseasonably snowy weather this week in Minnesota.  “Unseasonable” is the polite way of saying 8″ of snow in our yard.  In May.

Today the inevitable thaw is well underway, and when I looked out the window of my sewing studio I noticed that the place where the letter carrier cuts across our lawn to our neighbor’s house is already down to the grass.  I wonder how often that happens — that the places where we leave our footprints are the first places for new life to show up?

I think of two churches — one where I was a member before I went to seminary, and one where I served my first call.  Neither of them entered into the Open & Affirming process while I was there, but both did so not long after.  I hope that my fading footprints may have contributed to their processes.  Or the friend who chose not to wear a wedding band because she remembered me saying that the correct number of rings in a marriage was always an even number; when her husband chose not to wear a ring, so did she.  Not sure how I feel about those footprints.

It’s probably good to remember that the footprint-first melting pattern is peculiar to spring snowfalls.  During the winter, the places where the snow is packed down (tire tracks as well as footprints) often take a long time to thaw.  Which is something to ponder another time.