A Northern Winter Seal

Very close to the north pole, in the middle of February one night, a mother harp seal gave birth to a little white pup. This was a dark time of the year, for it would be many more days before the sun would shine this far north.

Mother seal did not choose the time when her son would come. It was in the middle of a great arctic storm, the kind of storm that could rage for days with no end in sight.

What a world for the little white pup to be born into.

The two of them lay quietly on the freezing slab of ice under the ink-black sky in the whirling, howling wind. But this was all he knew. And the little white pup did not yet know what darkness was, for he had never seen light.

The mother seal lay up-wind of her pup to shield him from the coldest blows of the terrible stormy wind and snow.

But the pup was only happy to be with his mother.

Snow and ice started to pile up around the mother seal. She had to constantly keep moving and brushing the snow away to keep from being buried.

And all the while, the pup calmly snuggled close to his mother under the jet dark sky.

The Mother was hungry, for there was no food on top of the ice. No other creature dared venture onto the bleak empty plains which were swept flat by the bursts of wind.

But she must feed her pup often, for he must grow bigger and stronger.

The seals could not count the days, for there was no sun to tell the time. But slowly, the storm began to slow away. First, the ice stopped falling so heavily. Then the wind stopped blowing so harshly. Then, soon, all that was left of the old cyclone was a low sheet of cloud briskly flying over the two seals.

But they were still left alone, in the dark, the pitch black darkness, so that the mother could hardly even see her little white pup.

But the pup did not need to see his mother, for she was right by his side.

The clouds drifted across the icy sheets, rushing away in circles around the north pole, only to come back again soon.

The pup was beginning to grow now, and Mother was very tired and hungry. But she knew something that the pup didn’t yet know.

He was content where he lay. All he needed was his food and his mother and his sheet of ice underneath. The pup would gladly have stayed there all his life.

But the mother seal was waiting for morning to come. And with it, life, and the sea, and live fish. But the dark, inky clouds continued to roll on overhead.

Until one day, when almost without warning, the clouds gave way, and Mother and pup lay under a shining sea of stars.

The little white pup was dazzled with the sparkle of the lights shining on the snow. “Mother, what is it?” he asked.

“These are the stars,” she whispered to him.

Her stomach rumbled within her, but the stars continued to twinkle above.

“Why are they here?” he asked.

“They are always there, my pup,” said Mother. They have been shining above the clouds since before you were born.

The pup was glad to hear this. The stars were beautiful.

The two seals laid on the ice for a long time, watching the lights above them flash and dance in the sky.

“I don’t think there is anything more beautiful than the stars,” said the little white pup.

Mother seal smiled. “Yes, they are beautiful, but they are only a little glimpse of what is to come.”

And as the lights glittered in the heavens, the little seal fell asleep on the cold, hard ice.

For a long time, the two seals lived on their sheet of snow under the dancing stars that swirled across the sky every day.

And the mother seal longed more and more for day to come, but her pup only watched and laughed with each twinkle and each sparkle in the sky.

And all in a moment, the faintest change began to appear. At the east-most end of the great sheet of ice, a splash of pink began to glow on the horizon.

It wasn’t long before the Mother saw it and rejoiced, for she knew what was to come.

The pup, however, was oblivious, for he was fast asleep on the cold, hard sheet of snow.

He awoke to a tap from his mother’s flipper.

“My little white pup, day is breaking,” she said.

The pup looked around, but he saw no change from the night before. The sky was still perfectly clear, and the stars still twinkled merrily in the sky.

He watched the sky again, as he had grown used to doing. Slowly, he noticed that some of the stars were twinkling just a little bit more and seemed to grow just a bit dimmer.

“Mother, is that star starting to fade?” he asked in surprise.

“The stars are laughing and smiling today,” she said, “for the sun is coming.”

“What is the sun?” asked the little white pup.

The mother waited for a moment as she watched the eastward sky become just a little lighter and just a little pinker. “You’ll see,” she whispered.

The pup watched the sky as one by one each of the stars began to grow dimmer and fade into the background. He was almost beginning to grow alarmed, when all of a sudden, he noticed that something else had changed. The sky was no longer black. It was a beautiful gradient of a deep dark blue to a faint purple to a rosy pink and finally to a glowing orange.

Then the little white pup stopped watching the stars as he too fixed his attention to the source, to the east.

And in just one moment, a bright and shining object began to rise over the freezing sheet of ice and snow that blew away everything the little seal had ever known as it surrounded him in light and warmth.

“Day has come,” said the Mother seal with a smile to her little white pup. “Good morning.”