As we grow older, we accept that there are places in life we need to travel between, and moving through the snow is tiring, and hides things that might cause us to fall or experience pain. So we walk down the same path each day, packing down the snow to make our journey less of a chore and less of an unknown. While we often need to, or want to reach new destinations, we habitually look for paths that other people have already packed down to ease our journey. Before long we have lost sight of the joy that can come from cutting a path into fresh snow, we see only a lot of work and buried hazards. It's safer to stick to the paths.
The trouble is when we start teaching our children to stick to the same paths we forged, or have chosen for them when they just want to set out on their own through the snow. We feel like we're just helping them avoid our mistakes, our regrets, but we are denying them the experience of discovering something we didn't even know was out there, because we simply stopped looking. Go to this school, get good grades, become a professional in this field, because I didn't do it, but it is what I believe you need to be happier and more successful that I was.
I've always doubted Faith growing up, feeling that an afterlife wasn't a reward, how could it be? Our lives here are but a brief moment, and we truly don't comprehend what eternity means. Exploring and experiencing something new is the whole point of being anything, and I believe this is why we are born with absolutely no memory of what came before, and a instilled sense of curiosity about our surroundings. I'm sure most of us have dreamed of being able to go back in time and re-live their lives with knowledge of what was to come, to correct past mistakes. But this dream is futile. Nothing will change because we've already forged our network of paths we are comfortable following. We have 1000 reasons and excuses for why we can't do something or be something other than what and where we are right now. What would we accomplish starting over again with that burden, and the burdens of 100 previous lifetimes? It wouldn't change if you cannot justify a reason to shed that burden today.
Childhood is life's way of giving each of us a fresh blanket of snow. Look out away from the well worn, safe path you've been walking along because it's still out there all around you. Let your children explore it for themselves, and if you're still not able to tromp off beside them through that untouched snow, then follow in their footsteps, resisting the urge to give them directions, but ready to help them back up if they slip. Marvel in the new places they might lead you.
