Look closer

I stepped from one world to the next: sunny Miami to snow-covered Maryland.

At first, I dreaded it. Every day, I joked how I could never leave Miami. I didn't want to return to , cold steering wheels, frozen windshields, a drafty apartment, chapped lips, red faces.
Then, it snowed...

and I couldn't help but smile.

I'm left in awe by the beauty of it all! By the graceful fall of snowflakes, the quiet of the woods.. by the outline of the trees and the occasional splash of red berries.

This isn't new to me; Miami was a vacation. I've grown up in Maryland and snow is no stranger.

Yet.

It is new. As my boots crunch in the snow, I turn into a three-year-old with the goofiest smile imaginable. It's plastered on my face.

I look up, squinting at the bright, white sky trying to pinpoint a snowflake to catch.

Then I remembered, I remembered something my friend had asked me.

"Have you ever seen a snowflake? An individual, beautiful snowflake?"

I hadn't. I had caught snowflakes on my tongue or watched them fall into my hand. I had made countless forts, snowmen, snow angels, snow balls, but had never stopped to look.

I looked.

The fractals, the designs of each snowflake was there for a brief moment before they melted. Each snowflake was different; no two were the same. It's truly incredible, to think that each snowflake that floats down is different.

Each one, seemingly handcrafted.

Simple beauty, hidden in plain sight. It makes me wonder what else I have missed...what else I haven't truly seen. It makes me yearn for more.

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