The thaw reveals things that a clean white surface temporarily made easy to ignore.

A cover is not a resolution. Snow makes a street look finished and settled, and everything underneath is exactly where it was, waiting for the temperature to change. Plenty of situations work the same way: a quiet period after an argument, a tidy month with the same unpaid problem sitting in it, a difficulty that stopped being mentioned rather than being addressed. Calm is not proof of repair.

When something goes quiet in an unlikely way, ask whether it was resolved or merely covered. It is far easier to deal with in the calm than in the thaw.