A Lesson in the Snow...

A Lesson in the Snow

   As you know from previous posts, I've chosen "pathways" as my guide word for the year.  I promised myself that I would try to be more aware of the various pathways in my life and to be on the look out for any visual references that may come my way.  This photograph was made in my front yard the day after a recent snowfall.  I am sure the tiny footprints were made by my neighbors grey cat that seems to circumnavigate by house on a daily basis. I was getting out of my car and thought, yes, a pathway but really...isn't it a bit obvious?  Hardly worth the effort to go in and get the camera but then I noticed something, something that changed my mind.

   I've often observed this cat on his daily ambles and I have noticed that when he walks in snow he always walks in his own footsteps when he returns.  It never fails.  He always steps carefully in the paw prints he made on his way out.  But here, in one small section of his track, he stepped out, for just four steps and I wondered, why?  Who knows.  Maybe he saw a bird or squirrel that distracted him and he veered off track.  I was able to make an observation for my own "pathways" from this simple image. (Which also made me realize that I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the "obvious"...it could still have a lesson to teach.)

   While it is always so much easier to follow a path we've walked before or to follow carefully one someone else has made before us, we often miss so much of life in our concentration to "stay on track".  The real joy in our lives often comes when we allow ourselves to be "side tracked".  When we take our eyes off the path and look elsewhere.  The path we're on will always be there...we can always join up with it further down the trail or, we may find, the new path is the right path.  I hope I give myself the freedom to do just that this year.  My Grandmother use to admonish me as a child when my distraction caused me to bump into something..."Either look where you're going or go where you're looking, you can't do both!"  Wise words....