Rainy, quiet, blissful Saturday November 16, 2013

I want to write before I get too far awake, too far alert, and too far into my day.  Today is pure heaven.  I am sitting at this moment, in my bed, with the blinds open and the gray morning sunshine (or lack thereof) coming into the room.  I have a heating pad at my back, purely for the yummy comfort of it.  I have a cup of steaming pumpkin coffee next to me, and an entire day ahead of me to do anything I want.

Oh, and I just found a groupon for highlights and a hair cut for $45.  Perhaps that’s the reason for my happiness.

Just kidding.

I have found so much beauty in the world in the last two weeks.  I don’t know why.  I have no idea if God is purely putting beautiful things in front of me, or if I just happen to be seeing more of it, but it is just awe-inspiring.  I’m trying to figure out what it means.

It started the other day when I was driving down a two-lane road near my home.  I live in a big city, but I’m on the farthest outskirts of the farthest suburb, so there are still roads that are largely un-commercialized.  They are still tree and brush-lined, and some still have animals (horses, goats) roaming beyond their old wood and wire fences.  I was headed east, early in the morning, and up ahead of me in this particular area I could see the bright sunshine filtering in through the orange-red leaves.  It was one of those golden bright mornings that you’re nearly blinded by the sun.  As the car ahead of me started to drive through, the wind picked up and all of these brilliant orange and yellow leaves began to flutter down through the sky.  But it wasn’t like they were just falling; they were twirling, graceful, dancing, slow-moving, gently dancing leaves.  Like a snow globe, but in a particular section of the street ahead of me.  And then suddenly I was driving through it and the sunlight was sparkling and the thought literally occurred to me that this, this was like moving through angels.

I’m not one normally given to such fanciful thoughts.  But there it was, and it was true.

Then a few days later, I drove all the way to work (40+ minutes) and realized I had forgotten my laptop.  So I had to turn around and drive all the way back home.  This was a ridiculous inconvenience, not to mention causing me to miss an important meeting I had coming up, but you know me – always look on the bright side.  So hey, it means I get to listen to a few more chapters of my current book on CD.  (GILLIAN FLYNN.  If you haven’t discovered her yet, DO.  Mind-blowing girl, she is.  She makes me feel like a worthless writer.  I almost threw in a smiley-face there, but that’s no joke, peeps. She is Uh. Maze. Ing.)

But I digress.  Sorry.  Gillian Flynn’s talent really does do that to me.  Anyway… as I turned down a street somewhat near the first area, I started seeing all these brilliant, diamond-like sparkles off on the side of the road.  It drew my attention and so of course I had to look closer.  What on earth was THAT??? The day before, the weather had unexpectedly dropped from 50-ish to 18 degrees.  Some poor souls apparently still had their sprinkler systems to set to go and two or three homes’ yards were coated in the most amazing display of ice.  As a Midwestern girl, I’ve seen my fair share of ice storms, and they are all beautiful and a huge pain in the behind all at the same time.  You don’t even get to look at them too closely unless you’re safe and warm in your living room, because if it looks like that outside and you ARE outside, your eyes are firmly on the road with your hand on the gearshift, getting ready to shift into neutral. 

These people’s sprinkler systems had apparently sprayed a good 1/2 inch of ice over the trees, grass, landscaping, fencing, EVERYTHING.  And all of it glittered and sparkled in the morning sun.  The contrast between these two or three yards and all the green, orange and yellows of fall all around it was amazing.  I know, I know, I know.  These people, while offering me a beautiful view, had a giant mess on their hands and likely a ridiculously pipe-shattered sprinkler system now, but it was still gorgeous, non-the-less.

 

So now my coffee is nearly gone and I’m awake enough to be sucked into finding a new hairstyle for myself and my groupon, and I found a great crockpot French onion soup so I am signing off. 

I’ve missed you!

 

The games we play August 7, 2012

 

I was watching the Olympics last night, and it was a men’s volleyball game between USA and LAT.  I wasn’t even 100% sure what country LAT was… I guessed (correctly) Latvia, but it still brought me a moment’s pause.  Geography whiz, I am clearly not.

I watched these men playing, and one camera shot in particular was on one of the Latvian men’s faces.  I thought “he looks a lot like so-and-so”.  This man, from a country that I’m not entirely sure where is located, and I wasn’t entirely sure of the name of, looked a lot like someone I knew.  Regardless of his nationality, or skin color, or eye shape, or anything else… looked like someone I know, and this made me think a little more in general about the whole concept of the Olympic games.

The Olympics are a beautiful, amazing thing… because it is the one time that the ENTIRE PLANET gets on board with the SAME THING.  We all come together to play a game.  That everyone knows the same rules for.  Everyone wants the same thing, everyone wants to do that particular dive perfectly, or spike that ball over the net just so.  And for the next three and ½ years until the next Olympics, all over the planet, people will still be playing that same game, until the next wonderful party where we get to do it all over again.

Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we could just remember this all the other days of the year?  No one cares what religion you are when you are leaping over those hurdles on the track.  NOT AT ALL.  They don’t care if you wear a cross on your neck or a turban on your head, grow a beard or shave every ounce of hair on your body.  You can worship little green people on Mars if you want to, but if you can fly effortlessly over those uneven bars and land beautifully, everyone cheers.  Those strong, determined girls from Romania, those talented girls from China, that amazing girl who they have named an entire stunt after… they all want the same thing.  They all practice the same moves, on the same equipment, for hours every day.

We are all one.  We all live on this same Earth. We play the same games… we cry and hurt and laugh and wish, just the same.  Imagine if we put this kind of one-ness into cleaning our oceans, or fixing our atmosphere, or feeding the children of our planet.

What a beautiful few weeks.