What Lies Beneath

Here in northwest New Jersey, there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground.  In places where the sun doesn't shine, there's a good foot or more, glazed over with a hard, icy surface.  Most of us forget what our yards even look like, as mountains of shoveled snow have created distortions in whatever landscapes we thought we had.  I built a stone wall along one side of my driveway, and I am not looking forward to finding out what condition it is in.  I keep finding large stones from my wall across the street, having been inadvertently moved there by well-meaning plows.

Yesterday, it was warm enough to hack away at some of the remaining ice and snow in the driveway.  In doing so, I found my daughter's car, buried there for months now.  It's parked in one of those places where the sun doesn't shine, so I won't be able to clear a path for another couple of weeks to move it.  Battery's dead, anyway.  By the time she returns from Australia this summer, I should have it out and running.  God willin' and the creek don't rise.

Also yesterday, I relocated some flexible drainpipes from one side of the house to the other.  They are needed to  divert the snowmelt that might otherwise cause some flooding in my basement, if and when it ever gets warm enough.  In removing the drainpipes from their original place, I was shocked to discover bright yellow-green growth underneath.  My initial reaction was something like, "What the hell is THAT?"  Having gotten used to a landscape that is mostly brown and white (with some dirty gray thrown in), this neon color threw me off.

And then I realized, with awe and wonder . . . daffodils!  Absolutely amazing that underneath this frozen insistence, nature carries on as if . . . well, as if it's almost spring.  And I know that what lies beneath other mounds of snow on my property are crocuses, tulips, ferns, hostas, primrose, echinacea, ajuga, pachysandra, and oh, too much to list!

Surfaces are often cold and hard.  They can be protective, but they are also sometimes false.  It takes courage to test their strength, knowing that you could fall through.  But if and when you do, you might find beauty and promise in what lies beneath.

Go back and read that last paragraph again.  Then fall in love with the metaphor, okay?