Slushy Parapets

My run today took me alongside the river and as I ran, I watched the little floating patches of ice meandering their way down the river. They were a myriad of shapes and sizes. What stuck me as odd about them was they way they all had scruffy tufts of slush along their outer edges, looking like white & snowy parapets; as if Mother Nature had gotten out the grater and a large chunk of ice and shaved little piles of ice shards along the entire circumference of each little icy plateau.

It’s funny how Mother Nature has a way of making the most mundane look really beautiful. I have had the good fortune of seeing some really spectacular sunsets from the comfort of my balcony of my high rise apartment. Even though the icy travellers are harbingers of winter and the long coldness that will inevitably descend upon us; I could not help think of them as beautiful; like the glittering of hoarfrost on a bare gnarled oak tree or the glistening of the same tree after a freezing rain as the sun hits it early in the morning. Even in the midst of the apparent ugliness and dormancy of winter, beauty can be found.

I got to thinking about how the icy parapets had formed on each of the frozen travellers. I thought it must be caused by the collision of the wayward ice, as they float down the river, they careen off each other; merging briefly, transferring and building up their slushy edges before parting ways and meandering on down the river as separate little voyageurs.

This meeting and parting is a lot like people; meeting, transferring knowledge and emotions and then parting again each a bit built up by having come into contact with the other person. Each of us grows a bit, having met and interacted with another person.
Whether it something as obvious as a student learning something new from their teacher or learning bits of trivial during a party or other gathering or the more subtle way that a person feels stronger having met with a friend and during the course of their conversation, unburdened themselves of emotional or mental baggage they’d be carrying. Both people benefit; the one who unburdens oneself feels stronger and more free, and the friend who was able to be there for them feels better for having been able to help. The meeting and brief merging leaves neither person unchanged, even if the changes seem imperceptible, change has still occurred and our scruffy edges, our personal parapets have been altered by the interaction as we meander our way though life.