Yuck? by Susan L

  The cold squeezed my cheeks like an old lady glad to see me. It left them tingling and burning. The rest of my exposed skin quickly felt the same. I wrestled the scarf, wrapped around my neck, up and around my face. Not too tight. I can't bear that. But loosely, so warm breath steam drove the frigid air away. Eyelashes and eyebrows quickly became coated in frosting.
  The gravelly rasp of shovel blade took on its rhythm: a scrape/bang mastered from years of practice. The three step dance, forward, backward is a pattern well known. Switch hands to do the other side: three step, forward, back. Bend and scoop. Flick and swish.
  Halfway up the driveway I looked up. It seemed to stretch forever, that remaining twenty feet. Still ahead was the Hump. The dreaded, heavy, packed snow at the end where the plow gleefully deposits my fair portion of what covered the road.
  Standing there, with shovel resting, the only sounds were the thump-thump of blood rushing in my ears and the air whistling through my teeth. As they faded, as breath and heart calmed, the silence rushed in. Usually there are some sounds of the highway a couple miles from here or some song of human presence. There wasn't a dog barking or a door slamming. Nothing. Except this all encompassing stillness that delighted my soul. I could have been the last living creature on the planet.
  A car purred slowly by, tires muffled by a layer of packed snow on the road, assuring me I wasn't.
  A couple of small song birds cheeped. They were out of sight, hidden within the privacy of snow packed branches. Everything was so incredibly beautiful, so new, so fresh.
  It grieved me to break this moment. The harsh scrape of shovel seemed to almost desecrate the cathedral majesty of the morning.
  Inch by inch, the driveway was soon cleared. The mailbox was made accessible, cleared of Hump. The job finished.
  Thank You, Lord, for blessing me so.
  "Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer." Ps 19:14