"Mabel could not fathom the hexagonal miracle of snowflakes formed from clouds, crystallized fern and feather patterns that tumble down to light on a coat sleeve, white stars melting even as they strike. How did such force and beauty come to be in something so small and fleeting and unknowable?
You did not have to understand miracles to believe in them, and in fact Mabel had come to suspect the opposite. To believe, perhaps you had to cease looking for explanations, but instead hold the little thing in your hands as long as you are able before it slips like water between your fingers."
From The Snow Child
*
To everyone who visits here, happy Christmas.
Your old moth-eaten physicist friend recommends this site for all who are interested in the answers to Mabel's question.
Happy Christmas from Dark Puss and family!
Posted by: Dark Puss | 23 December 2011 at 12:24 PM
What a lovely passage from The Snow Child - a book which will definitely be coming home with me when it is available to us lesser mortals!
I hope that you and yours have a lovely Christmas.
Liz
Posted by: LizF | 23 December 2011 at 03:24 PM
Thanks for your reference. There's a whole world out there to be discovered!
Posted by: Barbara MacLeod | 24 December 2011 at 03:26 PM
Happy Christmas from our clan presently in Vancouver.
Posted by: Barbara MacLeod | 24 December 2011 at 03:30 PM
There is indeed, I hope I have made a tiny contribution in the last 30 years to discovering it!
Have a very happy Christmas
Posted by: Dark Puss | 24 December 2011 at 09:42 PM
Happy Christmas from me right now in Melbourne!
Posted by: Mystica | 25 December 2011 at 01:13 PM
Belated Happy Christmas and all the best for 2012.
Posted by: Susie Vereker | 27 December 2011 at 02:28 PM