Snowflake Moment

I think we know too much and live life trapped in repetitive sequences of events both past and yet to be. We relive moments to all who feign interest and collectively gather in anticipation of upcoming events. As I watched football games, I was caught in the reminders of a week which saw a quarterback fired and a coach saved. I faced an orthodontist who confirmed braces in my not too distant future. I held silent vigil for one friend facing the unknown and had dinner with another living in new realities. I visited the grocery to overstock an already stocked pantry as the entire South braced for the fury of winter storms cutting an icy swath across our innocent path. We waited with eagerness like children on Christmas Eve for the first flakes to gently cover the present in pristine white. Untouched by the past and obliterating the future, the world would finally still.

I am tired by preparations and the excitement wanes as darkness fades slowly into my neighborhood. Relaxing to soft music and warmed in a cocoon of safety, my mind drifts as I remember the days of youth. Days with nothing to do except live in the moment. If clouds blew across a blue sky, it would rain. If the temperatures dropped and I could no longer smell the earth and fresh pines, it would snow. If the sky turned green, we would run for the basement. Food magically appeared on the table and everyone gathered at 6:00 for supper. Worries of flossing between foreign metal objects and travel on slick roads soon dissipated, and I was lulled into darkness the way of dimming stars under the weight of blackened night clouds.

In a drugged space between awake and asleep, I hear sounds like rain on a tin roof. Rising to gaze out the window, I am surprised that freezing rain is hitting a snow covered deck and trees are already bending towards me covered with ice. The glistening scene stretches deep into spaces lit from the ground and in wonder, I am transfixed. Braces and football and anxieties are forgotten as I open the door and breathe the chilled air. The past and future merge into a present rain changing into snow and I smell the virgin moment.

Oh that I could be trapped in this time where I only know what is felt on my tongue as I raise my face to the sky and capture snowflakes.