Soliloquies in the Snow

There aren't many things about Chicago winters I'll miss this spring. But one of them is the trails in the snow...!

From December through February there's usually enough snow on the ground to spot where everyone's been in the morning. The dogs and squirrels on their sunrise treks, the mail carriers and delivery guys on their daily routes, the neighbors who just left for work, and the kids meandering to school. More than tracks, these are messages. Un-rehearsed soliloquies by the life around us that we don't often notice or, worse yet, don't often take seriously.

You can forget about these in the spring and summer when their travels leave no trails. But in the winter, you know they were there even without you being there. Kinda nice. Sorta reassuring. White reminders that all sorts of things are happening in our everyday world even when we don't take the time to notice.

That of course is because we're so terribly busy with the important things. Jobs, taxes, graft, corruption and why we're collectively depressed that the Cubs will once more break our hearts. But in the winter, you can't walk outside your home without seeing and sensing other important things are afoot too. Things that -- even unseen -- tell you of the cosmic rhythms that pulse through the collective days of our lives. In the winter, out of sight is no longer out of mind.
When you think about it, our days are made up of all sorts and sizes of these trails. The ones we take, and the ones others take. While they may not all go in the same direction, their very existence out there reminds us we are each a small part of a very large criss-cross webbing of life. And while we are intent on the pursuits of our own individual existence, those trails in the snow make it impossible to ignore the reality that we are community. We are one. We are integrated within each other's lives even when we have the size homes and bank accounts that deceive us into smugly believing otherwise.

Right now this sense of community, this irrefutable reality we really are all in the same life raft, seeps into our consciousness each new headline. We have leaders who are calling us to stop sulking in our corner of the raft, and start paddling together. Bobbing on an ocean of traumas, the call makes sense.

Or, to return to our trails, there is this story about an old tribal guide leading a safari through the jungles of Africa. After several days, the roads gave way to paths and the paths to unmarked wilderness. When the frightened travelers asked, "But where's the trail now....?" the wise elder replied, "From here on, we're the trail...!