I don't think I have ever seen one before, that wasn't from a picture of a microscope detail. But this morning, I experienced it three times.

Yes, it's snowing. Yes, it's March.

Karl stayed home today, coughing and a fever. Katie, turns out, still has a fever, too, so she also is staying home. Jayne didn't want to walk to the bus stop alone and I was in the mood for a Human Bean coffee drink, so I opted to drive her to school.

Snow barely fell at the point we left the driveway. Evidence of overnight dustings lay on the barkdusted, landscaped yards, on rooftops, and on rhododendron leaves. After dropping her off, I came to get back on Main and waited for a school bus to swallow the long line of kids waiting for it, to be delivered to another school (ours sits close to the confluence of three borders for three different elementary schools). Then snow fell a little faster, but still made up of tiny little flakes.

Once I got on Main and pointed west to get my precious coffee, I waited at a traffic light. Three little friends came to visit my driver's side window - attaching themselves a few seconds apart, displaying to me their full glory of crystal and symmetrical perfection. I could see the little bars that made up the crystal pattern, the outside edges, the armed roundness made up of so much lace, in such a tiny, tiny flake. Little lace doilies, crocheted with ice.

Three of them. And then the snow began to clump and fall more heavily, in bunches and glops and my three perfect little snow fairy friends were gone, showing themselves to me and then melting away.

I will not forget them. Today is already starting off a bit difficult, and I will have to drive in snow to get my child to the doctor, my boss is on vacation, and I have "Secret Shamrocks" to assign.

And yet today I was given those three perfect little gifts. They remind me of my children. My perfect little gifts. Unique, special, and open to me.

Oh, they were beautiful.

And now I know my period is about to start, because I'm CRYING over snowflakes.

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In entirely different news, my puter has lost the SSID connection to the router AGAIN. This is getting ridiculous. "The_Beast" is not connected to FiOS service. It's SLOW.