On the coffee table in front of me is The Friendly Snowflake by M. Scott Peck (illustrated by Christopher Scott Peck).

Idly I pick it up and flick it open to a random page.

On that page is a passage linking the idea of reincarnation to the water cycle through a snowflake.

Instantly I’m taken back in time, to a Toastmasters meeting.

“Andrew tell me about your life as a raindrop.”

I have two minutes. At that moment two minutes seemed like forever.

Slowly and haltingly I begin.

I’m water vapour. Then I’m cold. Then I’m really water. Then I’m falling and flowing and turning into water vapour again. I could repeat myself but by then two minutes had gone!

I had spoken of my first-person experience of the water cycle. And unwittingly reincarnation.

When the speech is evaluated, it’s all good news. It’s just that no-one can decide what religion I am!