The purpose of an ice crystal lies not in perfection but in connection.
It is the time of hard, cold nights here in Sweden. I wake to mornings of glittering white, but it is not snow it is ice - crystals of ice. I find them utterly exquisite and cannot help but stop and gaze in awe at their geometry, like delicate miniature, cathedrals.
I remember one of the first times that I came to Sweden to visit the man who is now my husband. It was in the winter and we travelled north for some work he had and I had the day free to explore the area around the venue, it was lake and forest but I had never, ever seen such a forest. I felt l was in a fairytale and expected Mr Tumnus or the Ice Queen to appear at any moment. The trees were chanderlied with crystals of ice, some as long as pine cones.
Their beauty wrapped itself around my heart, pulled me forwards, nearer and nearer to them until I could finally focus fully on the repeated fractals of their shape. They offered infinite possibilities within their finite form.
They made me wonder about what was possible in the world.
They made me wonder about what was possible within communities.
They made me wonder about what was possible within myself.Each one of them was a fleeting miracle, unique and yet built through a shared geometry - a quiet echo of each other,
Ice crystals are formed when water vapour in the atmosphere freezes. The process begins with a seed crystal and grows outward in a hexagonal pattern due to the molecular arrangement of water. Temperature and humidity influence the shape of ice crystals, with colder conditions often producing more complex, dendritic (tree-like) forms,( see the picture above.) Often they can look like river tributaries or blood vessels. (Warmer conditions result in simpler plate-like shapes.) Many of them have fractal properties, especially in their dendritic forms. This means that they create complex patterns that are appear similar, whether you look close up or at a distance. So the macro is a vision of the micro. Each crystal is unique as it is influenced by the minute variations of the external environment that created it.
I think our lives, like snowflakes, trace paths shaped by circumstance
Branching
Bending
Adapting
No two alike, yet each created from the same shared substance.
Each needing connection in order to grow. This makes me think so much of the work of epigenetics, specifically the work focused around PACES, (Positive and Negative Childhood Experiences.) In this massive piece of research it was shown children who had experienced 4 or more negative childhood experiences, (these were identified as the death of a parent, a difficult divorce, abuse, addiction in the home etc,) were twice as likely to develop lung cancer, heart disease and liver disease. They were more likely to attempt suicide, become involved in substance abuse and their life expectancy was 20 years less than someone who had no adverse childhood experiences. (Further work was developed from this major study, that examined how positive influences could off-set some of the negative.)
Our lives, like snowflakes, trace paths shaped by circumstance
Many people thought the impact was to do with copying behaviour within the home, however with further investigation it was found that ACES impacted on a physiological level - primarily on our telomeres. These are threads that are at the ends of our chromosomes and are responsible for how long we live and how effective we are at fighting off disease. There is a wonderful video here of Doctor Nadine Burke-Harris talking about toxic stress (and using powerful metaphors.) So in the same way that ice crystals are formed and shaped by their external environment, so are we. Each of us carries its effect within, but unlike the impermanence of ice crystals, trauma can be carried epigenetically through generations, like invisible fractals, repeating.
Yet, in the same way that trauma can be fractal, so can
Kindness,
Comfort,
Care
and love
It is possible to alter the pattern of negative trauma through a range of techniques and by becoming aware -
Through stepping nearer and nearer to the pattern and identifying those repeated fractal forms.
A single beautiful act can ripple outward, branching into unseen spaces. A hand extended here, a whispered word there, and suddenly the coldest and most broken landscapes can be warmed by human touch. Together, we weave a pattern, impossible to create alone, a testament to the beauty of unity and to what it means to be human.
Ice crystals form not in isolation but in a dance with their surroundings. Just as they gather into snowflakes, we too are strongest when we come together. Kindness, like the smallest thread of frost, weaves connections that stretch far beyond what we can see and a single act can spark a chain, an infinite fractal web of generosity and care, touching lives we may never know.
The most profound wisdom of the ice crystal is this: its purpose is not in perfection but in connection, spreading in fractal flow over your windows and mine.
Stay frosty
Kx
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