Why Snowflakes Aren't Afraid to Fall

What would make something as beautiful and fragile as a snowflake brave enough to come hurtling down to the hard, cruel earth?

Why Snowflakes Aren't Afraid to Fall

Copyright 2008 by Heather Rose Brown

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I was watching the snow fall. 

Even though I couldn't see it with my naked eye, I could feel each snowflake as it drifted from the sky. Each was a soul of infinite, delicate wonders. My heart broke when I thought of what waited for them when they landed on the hard ground below. Without thinking to put on a coat, hat, or gloves, I rushed out the door. 

After a few dozen steps of hearing the snow crunching under my sneakers, cold horror filled my stomach, mixing oddly with the aching sadness burning in my chest. With each step I had crushed an unthinkable number of fragile bits of beauty. I fell to my knees, hearing more crunching, and simply couldn't hold the aching sobs in any more.

As hot tears rolled down my cheeks and burned little tunnles into the snow at my feet, all I could manage to say was, "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

The snow smiled up at me, glittering in the morning sun like a million tiny diamonds. "Why are you sorry?"

Something deep inside me said this couldn't be real. Something deeper said it was as real as it needed to be. I ignored both, wiped my cheeks with the back of a shaking hand, and simply answered, "I'm sorry your dance in the sky had to end. It was so beautiful."

"If we never left the sky, we could not bring beauty to the earth."

"But now that you're here, you'll be crushed by --" I wanted to say monsters, but I couldn't bring the word past my lips. "-- things like me."

"The clouds told us about what would happen when we reach the ground. We will not lose our beauty. We will simply change."

"You don't understand," I said, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. "You'll be crushed into the earth. When the sun comes out, all that will be left is big mud puddles."

"The clouds told us about these things. We will bring our beauty there as well."

My brain was feeling foggier as I sat shivering in the snow. The only meaningful thing I could think of to say was, "Huh?"

"Have you ever actually looked at a mud puddle? have you ever touched the bottom of one that has settled and watched as clouds of silt billow and flow? When we become mud puddles, we will bring beauty there as well."

I'm not sure how long I sat there when I finally realized the truth of what the snow had to say. I had gone numb with cold and barely felt the tug at my shoulder. As I was led back into the house, I couldn't stop smiling. I finally knew why snowflakes aren't afraid to fall from the sky.