It seems like forever since I last saw the first moments of
a snowstorm. We don’t get much of it here and when I do see it, it has usually
already been going for a while. After a trip to the grocery store and three
unsuccessful attempts to find a new electronic cigarette to replace the one
Daryll lost whilst fleeing a swarm of angry bees (no I’m not kidding), I
abandoned the quest in favor of the comforts of my toasty little apartment. In
a last-minute decision, I turned into the parking lot of the convenience store
down the street from home just in case they had one. No luck. Then I stepped
out into the silent cold night.
What I’m sure would normally be a black sky was instead a
deep crimson-chocolate-dark from light pollution…and illuminated by the nearest
street lamp came the soft and tender flutter of the very first snowflakes of
the night. There is something magical and mysterious about this precious and
rare moment. It’s another form of the infrequent “between-times” that I cherish
in their sacredness. With delicate grace, they spiraled down stark against that
red-black as if they were really moving faster but I could only see them in
slow-motion. As if moving within a dream I made my way toward the car, hovering
just above reality’s solid ground.
It is only a block or two from there to home, but linear
time had ceased to exist on that strange little journey. They came like music.
They came like magic. They came like a dance on the edge of consciousness and
they increased in number and speed. Pulling into the parking lot, I stopped
first in front of the mail boxes. Stepping out of the car, I could see the thin
layer of it turning the black asphalt to gray and my feet stepped carefully as
I fetched bills and medical information from a cold metal compartment.
Returning to the car, I greeted a neighbor and then found myself snug in my
favorite parking spot. Treading the tiny distance to the stairs leading up to
my warm little dwelling of yellow light, I watched the dark and the gifts it
was sending to rest on my hat and my coat. Just before turning away from her
magic, the Snow Queen planted one singular frozen kiss on my lower lip…and in
my heart I told her that I loved her too.
