Snowflake

"The Snowflake was born on a cold, winter's day far up in the sky, many miles above the earth.

Her birth took place in the heart of a grey cloud that swept over the land driven by icy winds.

It all came about from one moment to the next. At first there was only the swollen cloud moving over the tops of the mountains. Then it began to snow. And where but a second before there had been nothing, now there was Snowflake and all her brothers and sisters falling from the sky.

Falling, falling, falling! As gently as lying in a cradle rocked by the wind, drifting downward like a feather, blown this way and that, Snowflake found herself floating in a world she had never known before.

Snowflake could not think when it was she had been born, or how. It had seemed almost like waking up from a deep sleep. An instant before she had been nowhere; now she was here, turning, gliding, sailing, falling, down, down, down.

She thought to herself: "Here I am. But where did I come from? And what was I then? Where have I been? Whither am I going? Who made me and all my brothers and sisters all about me? And why?"

There was no answer to these questions. For the wind in the sky blows without sound, the sky itself is still; the very earth below is hushed when the snow begins to fall.

Looking about her, Snowflake could see hundreds upon hundreds of other flakes tumbling down as far as the eye could reach. And they were silent too."

I bought this little old book by Paul Gallico at a book fair last month, and read it this weekend. Published in 1952, it is a sweet allegory of life. From her birth in the clouds, her journey to earth as a snowflake, her early life on the snowfields to her later life as a waterdrop, her journey down the valleys to a river, marriage to Raindrop, childrearing, widowhood and her last days before she is gathered up to the clouds little Snowflake ponders on the big questions of what life is about, but always looks to her Creator.

I loved this...

"One day, not long after they had left the lake and were floating with the river through a green valley whose slopes were tiered with vines on which hung great clusters of white and purple grapes, Raindrop said:

"Snowflake, dear, whose are all those many little voices I seem to hear all about us, and to whom you speak from time to time?"

Snowflake smiled shyly and said gently: "I was wondering when you would notice. Those are our children, dear Raindrop."

Raindrop was greatly pleased, but could only say: "Well ..." and then once more, "Well, well! How many of them are there?"

Snowflake counted them again to make certain and then said with pride: "Four."

(Okay, so it's not a perfect allegory LOL if only childbirth was so simple as to not be noticed by a husband!)

I love that between each short section of the story is a little blue sketch of a snowflake, or a Swiss scene, or a raindrop. Definitely worth every cent of that $2 I paid!

A lovely way to end the winter here. Spring begins tomorrow.