What lies buried below

Walking today, the air temperature was a brisk 25 degrees. It was cold enough for the snowmelt to refreeze. What started out as a beautiful covering of white has liquefied, refrozen and become icy puddles. Below the surface laid dead leaves, a decaying carpet under ice, inaccessible. If you were to retrieve a brown leaf when the pool was fluid, it would have stung your hand to reach below the surface.

I know there have been times in my life where I haven't wanted to face some part of my life, I let snow provide a pure white covering. I can pretend that it was forgotten. As the thaw comes, what I didn’t want to face I now cannot avoid. Dead leaves lay at the bottom of a snowmelt pool. Scooping them out would burn my hand. So I let it sit there. The weather turns cold again and that deadness lies at the bottom of the pool, taunting me, but inaccessible. I must wait for the thaw.

I have learned that it is better to deal with things, not let them get buried and clear away as much snow as I can.