High up on an ancient mountain, snow packed for eons, the sun spread its rays over the glittery ice day after day to enjoy the flashes of rainbow that sometimes reflected back. It, however, never occurred to the sun that it could warm the ice, but early one morning a ray of sunshine – tired of doing the same thing every day, decided to find somewhere to hide. Ice was ice; it will always be ice, it thought.

It did not take long for it to find a tiny hollow in the ice and it nestled there. 

At first, the ice made the ray feel weak and all it wanted to do, was to close its eyes and go to sleep, but because it fed from the sun – which is a big ball of fiery gas; it could fight to stay warm and eventually, got stronger and stronger.

The ray of sunshine soon discovered that the snow was not one solid mass, but actually zillions and zillions of snowflakes fitted tightly together. The snow had also, by now, gotten used to the pinpoint of heat and did not try to chase the sun away. It in any case disappeared when it was time for the stars to come out and in the cold light of the moon, the ice soon settled down.

Every time the sun appeared, it’s rays would play over the valleys and plains of the land and just skimmed the icy peaks of the mountains, but one single ray of sunshine kept on going back to the little hollow it had found. And the ice got used to it. And so, the single ray of sunshine started talking to the snowflakes around it and told them about the valleys and grass, the trees and flowers and birds on the land. Its words painted pictures of exotic birds with beautiful voices and colours; of tree branches swaying in the steppe winds and flowers of untold colours in the hollows and open fields of the land. 

Soon the hollow got warmer and so the ray of sunshine also heated a single snowflake and made it soft and runny. The heat of this snowflake touched the one next to it and made it soft and runny too and over a period of time more and more snowflakes started to warm up and became soft and runny. Then the ice realized what is happening and got very upset. It rumbled and screeched and big pieces began to crack and slide down the cliffs, where it fell in crevasses and disappeared. The soft and runny snowflakes however, became beautiful, transparent bubbles that shimmered with mother-of-pearl hearts and accumulated in a little hollow between some rocks. When the rest of the snowflakes noticed this and heard the joy in the laughter of the bubbles, they too, wanted to change like that. So, the ray of sunshine invited some of its friends to come along – which they did happily once they got over their fear of the ice. This was a new adventure!

 Soon the hollow got too small for all the bubbles and they joined together, forming a liquid stream that spilled over the sides of the indent. Suddenly the great expanse of sky and earth seemed to look different; it was no longer cold and dark and hostile, but bright and warm and inviting. They were so excited that they danced down a small crevasse and, in this movement, made more and more snowflakes to follow them. The sunbeams got stronger and soon the whole mountainside was alive with drops of water that came together and found their own way down the mountain.

Very soon these drops became so many that they swelled into one and started to cut its own way down the mountain and into the valley below, filling every dip and uneven place; eventually, bursting its own borders and continued down every possible incline, forming sheets of water that cascaded over ledges to jump out into the nothingness of air. Soon the mountainside was covered in waterfalls that jumped over the edges of rock to gather together again wherever it touched new ground. There it formed new puddles that grew bigger and bigger and eventually spilled over and started to run into the valleys blow.

 The sun saw what was happening and smiled because now the veld did not have to wait for rain to fall from the sky. Everywhere the new streams of water flowed, grass and trees showed new life and new plants started to creep out of the ground. So, the sun sent more and more rays to the ice and more and more snowflakes became warm and lively and joined the cascades of water running down the mountains. The fast-moving water started to cut through the soft ground between rocks and soon formed gullies that kept the drops together and made them stronger and the gullies became wider and wider so that more and more water could fit into them.

It became a river. A mighty expanse of water rushing wherever it found a foothold between high and low ground. It spilled over new barriers and cut through unknown fields; always looking and finding a new low-lying area to wash over and build up strength where it met a new mountain or hill. Then it would mill round and round on itself until it has carved a new path through that obstacle.

On the mountains the ice became less and less and suddenly the ground was warmer and birds started to build their nests on the warm rocks. And so, brought the seeds for grass and flowers with them from the open fields and soon the mountains were also blooming and attracted more and more birds and small animals to live in the crevasses.

 All over the land, where there were mountains with ice, the knowledge of water spread and the sun started heating all the high ice, creating new streams of water running down to the fields, where some joined up with each other and some became strong enough to form their own rivers.

This happened for a long time. Rain became a little jealous. It felt it was its work to wet the lands and the plants and to supply drinking water for the animals, so it would form big clouds full of moisture to try and stop the rivers. But when the rain started to fall from the sky, it just filled the hollows and crevasses and rivers with more water, making them stronger and Rain realized they were a team. 

And then it was time for the sun to retreat; to give less heat to Earth. It was time for plants and grass to die; to dissolve back into the earth as food for new plants when the sun returns. The rivers became smaller and weaker and eventually dwindled to a standstill and a lot of the water sank into the ground where it was stored between the rocks of the ground.

On the mountains, new snow began to accumulate and soon all the rivulets and waterfalls stopped running and turned to ice. Everything was cold again. And Earth waited.

Then, one day, the sun returned; its rays getting warmer and warmer and again some rays remembered about the ice on the mountains and the fun they had and they returned to find little hollows where they could warm the snowflakes. Soon small rivulets were again streaming down the mountainside, reviving the dry rivers, the veld, the trees and the animals. Now the path had been lain and the rivers could swell and move forward more quickly, until it got to where they ran dry. But now, Rain came to help and the rivers became stronger and could cut through new terrain and the river found a new area that was flat with a lot of sand and little vegetation.

However, soon the water gave life to new plants and trees and birds and animals flocked to this new land. The melting ice, now so far, far away, still swelled the river and it ran on and on until one morning, it bumped against a huge sandhill. The sand was soft and River found that, if it ran up the hill, sand would wash down and make the hill smaller. This was a new game! So, the river uses its strength to wash up higher and higher against this new thing which is a mountain, but without rocks.

The more the sands came down and the smaller the hill became, the louder became the thud of the river against it until one day there was a gap in the hill and river forced its way through – only to come up short against a mighty expanse of a different water…the river has found the sea. It could run no further.

At first there was pandemonium: River had lost its freedom! It swirled around and battled the big force of water that tried to take it over. It was a mighty fight with huge waves battling each other and then River saw a magnificent thing: it saw the sun taking moisture from the sea in a big mist.

It stopped River in its tracks and then it heard the veld sing: Sun was taking moisture from the sea to put into the clouds to make rain – rain to take back to the land and the grass and the animals. 

And River realized: It has made a big circle. From a tiny snowflake high up in a mountain, where sunshine gave joy by heating the ice; Earth found joy in creating a big, beautiful, circle.

A Circle of Life.