METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING

I’m just a little concerned with the future.  I’m afraid 2019 is going to be a bit messy; it’s written on my front lawn.

You see, we have this huge front yard.  Massive, really.  Our house sits on a slight rise facing south and there’s nothing but a driveway and endless lawn between the deck door and Township Road 82.  In the summer it’s either grass to mow or what a savvy real estate agent would call a ‘water feature’.  In the winter it’s a huge expanse of pristine snow.  This scene from my front door is one of my most favorite in the world – all the space … the privacy … the freedom to inspect my morning garden in my pajamas.  The dog and I sit on the deck and survey our kingdom for hours in the summertime.

In the winter time this view is less mesmerizing.  In fact, it only really draws my attention for about the first week of the New Year.  At this time of the year my front yard becomes a gigantic metaphor, helping me to describe the coming year.

The comparisons are just too perfect.  The pristine snow showing how we all are afforded a fresh new start.  The wide expanse telling us that we have no boundaries.  The slate so clean that we are invited to make our own path wherever we see fit.  It’s pure metaphor heaven.

How can anyone take in such a wide field of possibilities and not be excited to step forth into the New Year?  How could you not believe you could climb any mountain, swim any sea, tackle any monster?  The potential for attainable achievements lies at our feet.  All we have to do is stamp our personal design onto that clean, white surface and the rest will take care of itself.

Except for this coming year.  2019 is looking a little worrisome.

It’s hard to describe the front yard this time around, but here goes … we had company for Christmas.  For a week there were four little boys and three dogs here.  A regular pastime was being pulled around the yard on a toboggan behind a quad while being chased by a trio of canine clowns.  There is hardly a square meter of snow that hasn’t been trampled within an inch of its life.  There are so many paths out there now a person is either going to get dizzy or lost if he tried to follow them.  My “no limits” metaphor has fallen apart.

But, if I’ve stood by the ‘clean slate’ prediction on other years, I guess I should explore what the front yard tea leaves are trying to tell me this time around.  Taking in the trampled snow, the great circles of tire tracks, the deer bones and hide hauled up to the house … not to mention all the yellow snow and other dog residue.  What do these things say about the future?

Will I spend 2019 as a dazed schizophrenic with a crappy attitude wandering in ever widening circles, continually confronted by carnage?  Or, should I choose the safe route and be a hermit, refusing to go outside for the whole year?

The thing is, I’m a ‘cup is half full’ kind of person.  I think I will choose not to focus on what the yard looks like, but on how it got that way. 

Those boys had great fun making those tracks.  No matter how many times they were spilled out of the toboggan, they just laughed and got back on.  The dogs had the best time ever running and playing; that deer carcass was a culinary delight in their eyes.  Two legged or four legged, they all played hard during the day and slept well at night – you can’t ask Life for a better arrangement than that.  As far as the yellow snow and the other ‘lawn ornaments’ go, we all know they’re a part of life.  We just need to watch out for them.

So, here’s to a messy year.  May we all come out of it, wise and happy and loved!  Happy 2019 everyone!