This morning on the way to work it was snowing. This is unusual for
Washington, D.C. -- the past few years we’ve gotten very little snow. But this year it seems to snow every day, maybe even once a week.
As I was shuffling along, I happened to look down at the snowflakes resting on my coat. What caught my eye was that they were formed into perfect crystallized geometric shapes-- like the snowflakes that kids cut out from paper and hang in classroom windows. My entire life, I always believed those paper snowflakes to be an abstract representation of the real thing -- something dreamed up by some school kid generations ago and passed down. Never did I imagine that they exist in nature.
I’m not sure if this is a special event -- that the unusually low temperatures have brought about something I’ve never seen before -- or if I just never noticed. But what I do know is that I must have looked quite odd, staring down at my coat as I headed to work, transfixed by something I could swear I’ve never seen before.
It’s these little moments that make me realize that there’s still so much to discover out there in the world that I’ve never seen before or bothered to notice. All I have to do is look for it.