My shrubs front Morse Avenue, just past the dogleg turn. Three of us share the corner, our driveways emptying out into the same piece of pavement. Other than an occasional issue with someone backing into the shrubs, The ninety degree turn in the road isn’t an issue. Until the snow starts falling…

If the driver clearing the road is new, or just careless, the plow pushes the snow on the road into a curved white barrier, blocking in all three driveways. In a decent storm, a wall of snow several feet high is the result (the above picture is a two inch snowfall…)

One of our neighbors is in her eighties, but there are three of us who tackle the snow boulders, clearing the drives and connecting us to the rest of the town. Whoever gets out to shovel or blow the snow clears the pavement so all the driveways are clear – not just his or her own. It’s been the same for all the years I’ve lived here, through seven different homeowners in the three homes. It’s a simple if sometimes tiresome act, this clearing the corner; it’s the grace of reciprocal care. Sadly, not everyone has that.

When the storms come – snowy, political, existential – such grace sustains.