You know that energising excitement that builds up in your body whenever you picture those amazing winter wonderlands in your mind? Or how joyful you get when scooping the masses of white flakes over the tip of your boots whenever taking a step? This is exactly what I am going to explain in this input of the blog.
“It’s snowing!” someone is bursting out across the classroom and surely it is. Big flakes are falling loosely from the sky and start to cover everything it touches. After an hour and a half, it is finally time to encounter the first meeting of the year with the snow. The sun is covered by the white clouds but the light from above reveals the individual snowflakes from meters away in the air. I embrace the moment of the first steps into the flowing ice and gaze up into the sky. I spot a flake that slowly floats down from far up high only to land on the upper part of my chin. The sensation of an ice-cold feathery touch feels like a pure relief after I have been sitting for hours in the university. One by one, the flakes start kissing my forehead, eyelids and nose and hereafter melt to small
drops that pave their way down my face. I lift my hand to catch a few and the same feeling takes place in my hand. I once read that every single snowflake differs from another, which means none of them are exactly the same, so I take a closer look to approve or reject the hypothesis. It is very difficult because as soon as they take their landing, they melt into watery drops with only a few single seconds to observe their unique shapes and sizes. When standing completely still it is even possible to hear the snowflakes land on my hair and jacket. Memories of my childhood start flashing through my mind of how we used to ride the sledges downhill or how we would make snow angels in the garden and afterwards lay there and gaze up into the empty white and try and catch the flakes with the tip of our tongues. It might be years ago, but I still get that excited and happy feeling whenever I see the first snow falling.
This is one of the things that no one can ever buy, demand or control. It is simply one of the things we can only wish for and cherish whenever it arrives and year after year, it still keeps that one little piece of our inner child and makes the sensation of the first snow just as unique and exciting as when we were cheerful and carefree children.