The world is asleep as it comes alive. Covering the world in its quiet beauty, in its soft but bone-chilling embrace. I watch out the window as it falls in clumps from the night sky. I watch how the night is never completely black when a snowfall hits. It's like the world aches to stay awake just to watch as it slowly gets buried underneath the white flakes. There's something so comforting about watching the snow. There's something reassuring about it. If my world starts to crumble and I begin to sink, I think of how mesmerizing snow is as the streetlights illuminate its descent to earth.

It brings me back to childhood memories of numb hands and rosy cheeks. It brings me back to hot chocolate being sipped around the kitchen table. It brings me back to childhood wonder and a carefree spirit. The snow brings the child out of all of us. It brings us back to the mystery and excitement of Christmas, and it brings us back to a time where life was nothing more than anything we wanted it to be.

The snow may make our skin cold, but it makes our hearts warm.

We wake up to it lighting up our windows: the world looks like a new creation as our tired eyes are awakened by the crystal white of a fresh snowfall. The sound of plastic shovels being dug into driveways sounds like an old song that you can remember every lyric to. I love the way you can mold snow into different creations as if it were clay. A single snowball can be the platform for a 5-foot snowman that comes alive with the accessories of Mother Nature. We dress him up in a funny hat and checkered scarf, and suddenly he is no longer a part of our imagination but a living, breathing person--greeting the neighbors as they pull into their driveways after a long day at work.

The snow is hated by many and its beauty is always taken for granted. But as Spring rolls in and the snow disappears underneath the earth we feel an emptiness inside us. The wandering spirit of the child within us slowly disappears as the sun finds its rays and begins to shine again. Though the Spring brings us new life with its rain and blossoming flowers, there is a feeling to winter that we can't get anywhere else. It gets away from us, and we forget about it for a little while as we bask in the summer sun, but sooner or later our hearts slowly begin to beat with a newfound eagerness as October reaches us.

We know that winter is near and with winter comes snow, and with snow comes an indescribable feeling of peace and home. As the cold snow falls outside our windows, we are comforted by its stillness and by the warmth of the beating hearts around us.