I decided to go snowboarding this morning.  I got to the mountain before the lifts opened.  I wanted to be there early to get some decent time on the mountain before heading back home to work.  Being early, it was also very cold.  But the sky was blue and there was fresh snow on the ground.  I got on the lift and braced myself for the cold ride.  The ground sparkled like someone had thrown out millions of tiny diamonds.  I held on tight to the lift as I felt myself drawn toward the sparkles unable to take my eyes off the ground.  I noticed that I wasn’t cold even though the temperature had to be close to 0 degrees.  The air just felt crisp and clear and you felt you could see forever.  Then when the sun hit the air just right, I noticed that the air wasn’t clear at all.  The air between the trees was sparkling.  There was no wind.  The sparkles were not falling or blowing.  The sparkles were just hanging in mid air.  Tiny ice crystals suspended in air as if the trees were slowly exhaling and you could see their breath.  There was nothing else in the world but me, quiet stillness, and these magical trees sending out sparkles.  I imagined that even though I could not see sparkles above the trees where I was, that they were still there covering me as I moved through them.  This lasted for the rest of the lift ride and the next and then was gone.

Sorry, the sparkles were magic and cannot be captured in a photo.  You will have to close your eyes to see them.