Footprints in the Snow.

It's a cold January day and I'm sitting beside the fire watching it snow. Is there anything more peaceful? It's just beginning to mound on the sleeping flowerbeds and coat the bare limbs of the oaks and poplars beside the lake. The lake is covered in white back here in my cove and there's one lone goose perched on an upright log by the shore.
I have a couple of questions. It doesn't seem the right time to bring them up, surrounded by all this beauty as I am, but then cold January days are for reflecting.  
A friend of mine recently lost a close friend to suicide. He was in physical and mental distress but no one knew how bad that had become and he must have been too deeply into the indigo of depression to see his way out or to ask for help.
Why can't we see these things happening? How often do we hear, "I had no idea!" or "If I'd known, perhaps I could have helped..." Probably not, I think. Don't you think that by the time anyone realizes things are that bad it's too late for anyone to help? We comfort ourselves with that thought, and then another one pops in. "I could have helped if I'd known he needed help sooner. If he'd only reached out..." My thinking is that it's unlikely that most of us realize how much pain another human being is in unless they reach out and not many of those in trouble will reach out - perhaps because they don't understand the slippery slope they're on. And by the time they do - well, they're too far down the mountain.
Here's what I think about suicide. My belief is that we're all spirits. Long before we took on the mantle of human beings, we were spirit. We still are. Underneath the heavy cloak of earth, we're spirits. I also believe that we came to earth of our own free will, excited to try it out, confident that we could handle this school of very hard knocks.
Many of us can. As hard as this life gets, we plow on to the finish line.Some of us, it seems, may have jumped the gun. Perhaps we're impulsive beings, perhaps we're very young spirits, immature beings who once they arrive here find out this isn't what they had in mind! "Oh my God! Look where I've landed. Will someone please get me out of here?Help!
I think that sometimes this world we live in is just too damn hard. And for some of us there's no making it better. Some are just too tired, too sad, too disappointed and dejected to stay. They had some chances, some good times, but the bad times were just too much for them to handle. So they left. I believe they tried. They were not weak - just overwhelmed. Talented, many of them. Highly intelligent in some cases. It's much easier being pure spirit. And now they are.
Whatever happened, it's nobody's fault.We all have choices to make. We do the best we can. We all have free will and again, we do the best we can with that too. 
Sometime all we can do is to love one another. To make things a tiny bit easier on this old earth plain. And if we fall down on that sometimes, well, there's still time to make amends. To pick up and start again on a brand new day.
There's a brand new world outside my window. Pure white and unblemished. The snow is draped like fondant icing as far as I can see. I can't wait to step on it! It'll be like stepping into a whole new wonderland. How will  I mark it? I hope that the brand new foot prints I leave are better than the ones behind me. Maybe I'll make an angel - we all need angels. Everyone of us!