Snow
“When it snows you have two choices: shovel snow or make snow angels.”
Practice Clearing Snow
for your Neighbors
Clear the sidewalks or driveway for a neighbor who cannot shovel snow.
Choose to shovel snow when your neighbors are out to begin a conversation.
Consider clearing snow off your neighbors’ car if you don’t have sidewalks or driveways.
You can choose both. Make a snow angel after you shovel your neighbor’s snow.
Recommended by a local snow removal company as
“the best snow shovel”.
The shoveling of snow is a particularly Coloradan practice in loving your neighbor.
Winter weather provides unique challenges, and unique opportunities, to know your neighbors. Snow storms can offer the occasion to care for and connect with your neighborhood. Few neighbors welcome you pushing your lawnmower across their yard in the summer. Every neighbor welcomes some help clearing the snow from their sidewalks.
Shoveling snow may be one of the most physically demanding ways to care for those who live nearby. (The other is of course moving a neighbor which can include hoisting couches, refrigerators, or a piano.) But this physical, sacrificial love for another is what makes the act so valuable.
Clearing snow is a unique opportunity for conversation. Watch for garage doors to raise and your neighbors to emerge. Walk down the street, or across the street, to help clear the snow and you often find an open door for dialogue. A few questions to avoid centering the work around complaining about the weather or the roads are: “Did you grow up shoveling snow?”, “What was the occasion of the deepest snow you’ve ever dug out?”, or “What is your go to meal when you’re snowed in?”
I received a snowblower from my mother for Christmas two years ago. It is a gift that more people have benefitted from than any other. I’ve become the caretaker of the neighborhood sidewalks for the 20 houses on our side of South Holly Street. Similar to how owning a pickup truck turns you into a neighborhood moving service, a snowblower comes with the responsibility of leveraging this technology for the sake of others. After a good snowfall, 30 minutes of the snowblower can clear the sidewalks on our side of the block, saving my neighbors time and backs.
Clearing a neighbor’s sidewalk this winter is remembered throughout the year. It provides a foundation when the seasons change. A summer backyard BBQ invitation arrives with gratitude when it comes with the gift of a clear sidewalk that winter. Shoveling snow is a unique practice of hospitality.
