Merry Christmas from Siberia!

The legend of Snowflake comes from permanently frozen lands of Siberia. My granny used to tell it to me every Christmas in that special granny-voice of hers. She’s gone now, but the story lives. This Christmas I want to share it with you.

“She began her long descent far above the surface. Shivering from the cold, spinning slowly, she floated downwards. Her fall into the chasm seemed infinite and useless and, though she was surrounded by millions like her, loneliness was her only companion.


It all changed when first glimmers of light broke through the darkness below. The Earth became a reflection of the clear night sky. Flying closer to the surface, she saw the shining beauty of the Christmas evening. Streets and rooftops that so recently blended into the grey gloom of the city, had been transformed into an image of innocence that only new snow can achieve.


She spun, idly considering her fate on Earth. Perhaps, she’d land on top of a Christmas tree and become an eyewitness to an amazing spectacle. Who knows…?


It was possible that all that awaited her there was a lid of a rubbish bin. If that were to happen, she’d spend her Christmas night in expectation of the new day’s morning only to be hurled out with trash.


As the Earth got closer her excitement grew. What really awaited her there?


Blurred shapes below, tenuous ghosts of things, started to take edge. Was that it? Had her journey reached its final destination?


No! Please, anything but that! To make it all this way just to be flattened and melted by car tires!

She fell fast towards the highway. An articulated lorry at high speed – driver rushing home for Christmas – was coming right at her. The distance between them melted away into nothingness. Here they were, her last moments...


A blow!


A blow, a lift by a gust of air and the Snowflake soared upwards. Her journey was not over yet. Her mission unfulfilled.

She flew high above the snow covered park, above the shimmering Christmas tree in the main square, above a row of neat houses. She began to fall again. A current of air, almost gentle, picked her up and guided her into an open palm. She landed, melting away indifference that locked the human heart. She landed, granting a wish.”

I hope each and every one of you catches their Snowflake this Christmas.