She was small, she knew that. But having existed for so long, having traveled so far she knew there will come a day when her flight through space will come to an end. She observed everything around her with hungry curiosity, taking in every detail, shadow and light, every stroke. This beautiful moving painting surely was created by the most exquisite artist. It was all bigger than her, oh, so much bigger, but it was beautiful.
She looked at all her brothers and sisters, silently, but determinedly flying alongside her, not knowing their destination, but knowing they must keep going, until the end comes. Despite their great number they were a mere flock of tiny specks in the sea of giant planets, invisible compared to almost everything else. Some of her siblings would get caught in the gravity of bigger objects and the rest would continue on their path without as much as a glance.
There was no way of telling how long she traveled for, or even when she became aware of her existence. She only remembered being part of a whole. A bright light and deafening sound erupted from the core of the whole, and then suddenly she was floating weightless all by herself, separated, just as her brothers and sisters. For a while she was picked up by other, bigger pieces of rock, sending her flying in new directions.
Her path took her near a planet made of blue and green. “Such a magnificent creation”, she thought to herself. As she quietly admired the beauty a rock crossed her path. She, just like many of her siblings before, left the path and together with the rock plummeted towards the planet. The closer they got to it the stronger the gravitational pull untill she was ripped away from the rock and sucked into orbit. As she flew down towards the surface of the planet, she saw her siblings falling with her. She was not alone, but yet she felt cold and the cold surrounded her and swallowed her whole.
Her thoughts were becoming slower and slower, until it was impossible to recall anything anymore. She felt herself changing, no longer the tiny invisible speck.
The wind took her, slowed down her fall and made her dance, as if to celebrate this change. There was nothing left in her memory of who or what she was. She just swayed in the hands of the wind in a beautiful, mesmerizing dance, slowly approaching the surface. There were others around her, millions of white flakes of different shapes that moved in all directions, swayed by the wind.
Entranced with the dance as she was, the sight that was getting closer and closer was difficult to miss. She had never seen any of it before, but somehow she knew where she was, she knew what she was, although how she came to know this was a mystery.
A view of hills, trees and houses was below her and everything was covered in a white, soft blanket. It was so close, she felt the whiteness calling her. Like a motherly voice, telling her to come home. She let herself go, she knew the wind was taking her where she had to be, that this was the way and as the view of the trees came back into view, her dance slowed down and as she gently fell on a surface radiating warmth such she never felt before. Two enormous eyes looked down to her and just as she was about to melt away, she heard “Look, mommy, isn’t this the most beautiful snowflake?”.
Changed again, molten away, shapeless. She was a snowflake before, now she was water. The child shook his hand and she dropped on the white, crisp snow.
As quick as a blink of an eye she became One again. One with the brothers and sisters that had shared her long flight through time and space.
And she knew that the snow will soon melt, that she will become One with the surface. With time she would fall through the cracks of the brown dirt, her path will take her to the heart of the planet. Until one day that One will cease to exist and she will take flight again. This was the way.
