Changing the way the world looks

Photo: Roger Burks/Mercy Corps

The world can change overnight — or at least what you can see of the world outside your window.

I woke up this morning to find much more than a light dusting of snow on our yard, trees, sidewalks and streets here in the Utah Valley. And, while I've often considered how all those tiny crystals and flakes add up to such an accumulation, I thought about it a bit differently today.

I went and looked up the size of a typical snowflake: about half an inch. And then I looked out on the wintry landscape again.

It takes thousands of snowflakes — maybe millions — to cover our yard. And the snowfall stretched out far beyond that, all the way up to the top of nearby Mount Timpanogos.

A snowflake is a small thing. On its own, it's almost unnoticeable. But, when thousands — maybe millions — come together, they can completely alter the landscape. They can cover mountains.

They can change the way the world looks.