The Snow

The snow can be a wonderful surprise, or a painful experience. I had thought, hoped, that the snow would be done for the season. Oh, how wrong I was.
The snow was falling, cascading, down from the skies in an intricate, chaotic pattern. The wind howled its monstrous howl, and screeched the snow at us as we walked to class. Oh, how empty the wind can make you feel.
The amount that can fall in an hour; from as few as flurries to much more in inches, feet. The snow is an ever-changing mystery. How each snowflake can look so similar, yet is so different and unique from its falling mate. It is a wonderful, sometimes unbearable, mystery.
Yet last night, as I walked from building to building, I experienced the true beauty of the snow. Normally, I see the snow for its chilling appearance it takes most often. Last night, however, when all was calm and quiet I saw the beauty. There was no wind, no person out, so animal to disturb it. It was just the snow, like a fallen blanket across the earth, and myself, but a minuscule being in this vast expanse of a world.
As I looked around, took in the exquisite beauty of the fallen snow, I started to understand why some people love the winter. The snow, though sometimes cold and cruel, was in that moment peaceful and inviting. Looking across the patches of undisturbed snow, no wind there to blow it all away, it looked so serene. Though the beauty only lasted those few moments between the buildings, it was more than enough for me to start to appreciate the winter for the mystical beauty that it truly is.
And in the morning, when the wind was back and fearsome as ever, still I remembered the beauty of the night before. Though the wind may howl and the snow may freeze, always will I remember the peaceful moments of that night.