The Zen of Snow Shoveling!

Yes, I did do a bit of snow shoveling this past weekend, in fact, lots of it, just like many of my fellow New Englanders who saw yet another epic weather event with 2-3 feet of snow this time.  Not only was this an unusually significant amount of snow to confront, it was also an unusually inauspicious time to be shoveling; it was actually Yom Shabbat, Shabbat day, a time when our family chooses to refrain from productive work (see earlier posts).   

But you see, in my household I have been reigning as the official worrier for over 20 years.  My husband and daughter have yet to wrestle this title away from me – not by drawing straws not by secret ballots, not by wrestlig, nor by any other tricks they may have up their sleeves.  I am it, hands down… so regarding the snow it was easy to create all kinds of emergency scenarios that might befall us (I will spare you, dear reader, from my litany).  Further, I argued the position of peku’ah nefesh, that is that saving a soul or a life overrides any other Jewish commandment including keeping Shabbat.  Specifically, I considered that In an emergency it would be necessary for emergency personnel to be able to reach us in our house or conversely for us to be able to leave our house.  

My Daughter captured the depth Sunday morning!!

So bedecked in my knee-high heavy-duty snow boots and wielding my lightest shovel, I began to remove snow from my porch and unbury our cars in the driveway.  The effort required 3 separate rounds with savory Shabbat breaks in between. What was evolving from this experience was a whole new approach to snow removal that I attribute to Shabbat!!! 

·         I was noticing how the snow glimmered and sparkled before I heaped a shovel full on the growing mound and how each shovel-full changed the appearance of the snow

·       I was noticing that I needn’t be in a hurry and would slow the pace to discover new places to pile the snow or different kinds of patterns I could make with my shovel as I carved my neat and natty little snow walls (much nicer than the snow blower walls!!) 

·         I was noticing the interesting paths the snow would take as portions of my shovelful would roll back down from atop the stone wall. (Nope, that didn’t even irritate me)

·         I was noticing how amazingly my legs and arms were working as I brought kavanah, intention, to each series of movements to avoid harming my muscles as I shoveled

 

·         And in truth, I noticed how much fun I was having heaving snow up onto the stone wall where the pile was well above my head and figuring out how to optimize the result.

·         But also, in truth, I was hurting a little bit (hey but today I feel great!!)