We awake to a thin layer of ice over every walkway. I join the neighbors in salting the sidewalks and driveways in the freshly lit morning. Soon, the ice turns to slush. We can walk without danger.
When I think about salt–and the biblical metaphor of letting our conversation be seasoned with salt and being the “salt of the earth”– I consider for the first time salt’s role in helping people on the path. When we function as salt, we help others through danger, we navigate, we ease the way. We do what we can to keep them from falling.
The ice nearly stopped us all, but the salt cleared the path.