Today, it came.

For months we’ve been waiting, anticipating our first big snow as Marylanders. Even before we moved from California, we talked of a white Christmas, of snowballs and snowmen and all things cozy.

But until today, it never came.

There were false starts and promises, to be sure: One day we got flurries, barely more than thickened rain. Pixelated snowflakes have tantalizing flashed across my iPhone several times, only to be replaced mere moments later with drizzling drops of rain. And still we’ve hoped and waited, breath held, fingers crossed, only to wake to disappointment morning after morning.

So when weathermen and apps spoke of a coming snowstorm on this day, I barely blinked an eye. “Ha!” I thought. “Maybe some other folks believe that tale, but not me. There will be no snow this year.”

Despite my hardened heart, I checked for snow last night, last thing before I went to bed.

Still nothing.

This morning the day dawned different. When my alarm went off at 5am I felt… something. An urging. A voice telling me, “Look! Go see!” And so I did.

Much like ma in her kerchief and pa in his cap, Andy and I flung open the shutters and threw up the sash…. And what to our wondering eyes did appear? The luster of dawn shining through soft and snowy swirls. Our yard turned to a winter wonderland.

It was beautiful.

The unfulfilled promise of snow had left me jaded.

But when it came—pure, clean, ethereal—I gasped in awestruck wonder at the world washed white, my heart melting even as the ground around me hardened in the cold.

Today the news I heard came true, heralding a day full of magic and majesty and of a slate wiped clean, telling a story of the promised spring to come. Today we live softer, lighter, in rhythm with the glorious divine, in awe of the gift of snow.