Stand at the window during the first snow for a minute. The whole world gets quiet without asking.

Snow changes the sound of a place before it changes the look of it. Traffic softens, edges go quiet, and a whole town drops in volume without anybody agreeing to it, which is an unusual thing to be able to observe from indoors. The hush is the part most people miss while staring at the white. It lasts about as long as the first fall does.

Stand at the window for one full minute when it starts this winter. Say nothing, play nothing. Then go and tell somebody else in the house to come and look, because it is better watched with company.