Wednesday meditation
Making snow
I’m going to try something a little different in this space. Writing is my own place to stand, and lately I’ve been missing it. I’m giving myself a new challenge: to write first thing in the morning, for twenty minutes or half an hour. I’ll post my results here, along with the prompts that get me started.
Today’s inspiration is snow.
What if snowflakes were made?
We can read about how they form. A tiny ice crystal attracts water to itself as it falls through the air. The water molecules attach themselves to the crystal’s six sides to create the snowflake’s fragile, ethereal shape. It’s matter of temperature, geometry, and the properties of liquid. But what if…
Imagine an artist working over a fragment of ice so small it could sit on the head of a pin. Balancing it with the finest, smallest tools; cutting and chipping away at it to create a delicate six-armed star, ornamented with scrollwork and tiny filigree. Imagine the artist bent over the task, ignoring the inevitable ache of muscles held in tension too long: neck and shoulders, arms and hands. None of that matters. Only the careful, precise work that brings something new into being, something the artist can see and hold, that mirrors the beauty they’ve only dreamed about until now.
Imagine, too, that the artist knows what will happen to this tiny masterpiece. They’ll hold it for a moment, take in every detail of what they’ve made. Then they’ll let it go.
Their art will have a few long moments of life during that weightless drift and spin toward the ground. It might be one of many, almost indistinguishable as an individual except to the closest, most attentive glance. In the end, maybe, a touch of sun will make it flare, and then it’ll disappear.
It can’t last. The artist makes it anyway, for the sake of what never existed before, and won’t exist again.
If you’d like, please use the photo and/or the “what if?” question as prompts for your own creativity. Please feel free to share thoughts/responses in the comments; I’d love to read them.
About A Place to Stand:
I started this column in hopes of creating a bit of space and sharing light in challenging times. Drawing on my own experience as a trauma survivor, I offer meditative exercises using creative writing and music, my two professional/artistic pursuits. I also share some of my own writing and thoughts on the creative process. You can find out more about me and my work at my website.
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