I look out my window at the beautiful snow on the ground, at falling flakes light as confectioner’s sugar. I have loved this wintertime with all its snow. Seeing photos online of snow scenes from around the country and the world. Snow everywhere.

     I love how sunshine paints blue shadows of trees on the white snow canvas. I love my trees as if they were people – nice, wise people with only good intent.

       Still, I wonder why this snow- so heavy, so cold, so everywhere this particular winter. Recent winters have seen no snow in my city. The poet/writer in me thinks metaphor. 

     In Mt. Olympus, the God of Raining is raging. 

     “I will punish them for their evil!” he shouts to his wife. “I will rain down frogs. The frogs will eat their crops. They will have to tend their crops instead of  making terrible mischief. Evil. Yes, frogs!”

       Mrs. Raining God listens patiently. She has heard his rants before, but never has he been so angry with Earthlings as now. So much cruelty, so much killing, so much lying. So little love.

       She chooses her words carefully. “It has been a long time since you sent frogs, dear. And I have another thought.”

       “Oh,” the Raining God raises his eyebrows. “What?” 

       “The evil is done by a small but very bad lot with a lot of power, not by all humans. Many are doing good, and with love. I propose a softer kind of rain. 

     “What?” he snorts.

      “Snow.”

       “Snow! Why snow?”

       “To remind them of the beauty that enfolds them everywhere on that beautiful planet. The lovely lacy snowflakes; the way snow cleanses the land, makes it new and pristine.”

     The God of Raining sniffs. He loves his wife and knows she is wise. But sometimes she is overly soft.

       “This seems overly soft for such grievous offenses on Earth.”

       She has anticipated this: “let it snow and snow and snow so that they know the power of it. The beauty and the danger of what may rain on them. The danger they inflict on a world that wants love and beauty!”

       The Raining God nods and barks to cover his acquiescence. 

        “I will send it everywhere, every day, snow, snow, snow. So they know it isn’t just pretty, it is mighty. And they ought to know that it could have been frogs!”

       And so it snowed all around the world for 40 days and 40 nights. It was beautiful, and fun, and dangerous. It united a fractured world for a sliver of time one winter.