Snow Diamonds

The child in me emerges every now and then as it did this morning. Turning from steeping tea, I saw the rising sun catch the snow on my deck. Snow grains sparkled like stars on a white field. I remember a huge childhood snow when my across-the-street neighbor and friend Camille and I sledded down the Hendons' front yard all day long and another in New Orleans, weeks after my mother's death, when my friend Nancy's mother woke us on New Year's with snowballs in our faces and when we went to the Sugar Bowl in the Tulane stadium and sat with our feet on small humps of snow.I have no sled now and no desire to play in or pile snow into forts or mannequins, but when the sun catches snow while night's shadows linger, I feel the same thrill of snow.