Snow Balls and Change

This afternoon I watched my kids make snowballs from two day old melting snow.  They scraped it into mounds and rolled it into perfect spheres.  Periodically they would wander in to warm up, the day cold but not cold enough to warrant snow pants and jackets thus the in and out.

During one of the warming up sessions my son walks me through the process of making a perfect snow ball.  He tells me the snow needs to be wet but not too wet.  His face always overly expressive when explaining.  He went on to explain about the perfect symmetry needed, I think he said something about being round versus flat but I understood.  He was so proud of his perfect snowballs.

In a couple weeks my kids will be making snow balls in a new yard behind a new house.  I’m trying to imagine them running in and out of that house, excitedly telling me about their latest adventures.  I’m finding it difficult as I pack yet another box, wrap another glass, stack plates on the counter.  This house is a mess.  I’m navigating my way past stacked boxes in the hall and hoping I haven’t packed essentials in my need to get everything out of the cupboards. 

Still, the kids are excited.  They are already talking about their new rooms, the fun they’ll have in the yard, looking for the local parks.  Kids are so adaptable.  Sometimes we don’t give them enough credit.  We impose our stubbornness, our fear of change onto them.  We blame them when we know we need to do something that’s hard to do.  “Little Johnny doesn’t like to try new things.”

In my experience, it’s me that has a hard time.  I’m the one dragging my feet, furrows forming behind me on the way to great things.  I like status quo.  I like my couch, my bed, my food.  It’s hard to think of an uncertain future.  It’s difficult to imagine the future when things are out of our control. 

Then I think about my kids throwing the rolled snowballs this morning, perfectly formed snowballs that they worked so hard on.  I think about how excited they are for this move.  I think about how they throw toys haphazardly into boxes and scream down for me to tape up these half-full boxes.  They are so willing to do their part,excited to move forward.  When I think about their happy faces and shouts of excitement I begin to picture them throwing those snowballs in the new house.