My Aunt's Snow Globe Shelf

My aunt Teresa has collected snow globes since 1979. There are two hundred and eleven of them on a long shelf in her dining room, each one from somewhere she's been or someone who thought of her.

There's one from Niagara Falls with a tiny barrel going over the edge. One from Rome where the Colosseum gets snowed on, which makes no sense. One from a gas station in Nebraska with a cow inside that she bought "because the cow looked so pleased."

When I was little, she'd let me pick one every visit and shake it while she told me the story. I'd lie on her rug and watch the glitter fall over the tiny world.

This Christmas, she gave me the cow. "It's time someone else hears its story," she said. It's on my desk at work now. When meetings run long, I shake it and watch the snow land on a very pleased cow.