Snow!

The first lone snowflakes were just starting to come down when I got to school. Now it is really coming down. The air outside my lab window is full of them, and I am finding it hard to concentrate at my work at hand. They are calling to me, telling me to go outside and enjoy the first real snow of the season. Only last week I was thinking that I wasn't ready for winter to come, but now I have changed my mind. I am not only ready, I am eager.

I think that snowflakes maybe one of the most beautiful things on earth, if only for their ephemerality. (Yes that is a word; look it up if you don't believe me.) Fortunately I dressed for the weather today, so I stay outside for a while to catch a few on my gloves to look at. The trick to examining snowflakes is holding your breath until they slowly melt or you can't hold it any longer. Of course in the end they are gone, but it feels like you have been blessed to have the opportunity to have held such a unique piece of nature if only for a moment.