Friday, November 22, 2013

Beautiful Day







"What a pretty day!" I comment to my husband, every time we're together in the car. It's a new thing, a new feeling, a new appreciation of the beauty of each day.

Sunshine? "What a pretty day!"

Fog? "What a pretty day!"

Autumn colors? "What a pretty day!"

Cold drizzle? "What a pretty day!"

I just can't stop seeing the beauty in the world. I love the mysterious changes fog brings as it shrouds familiar scenery, hiding some features and highlighting others. I'm thrilled by the unique colors of each season, so lately I've been rejoicing in autumn's palette. I dance in my heart as the sun bathes my world and me in its light and warmth. I'm enlivened by the pinprick tickles of mist and drizzle, and I smile at the drops on the windows as if I'm receiving friends at the door.

I suppose I'm like a child in Robert Louis Stevenson's garden of verse. I know I often think of myself as being in a garden; certainly my "world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." If Abraham Lincoln was right, "most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be." I guess I've made up my mind to see the fun and the sparkle, even in dark times, and yes, I'm happy, maybe as happy as a king - even when I'm sad.

"Roses and thorns," my mother would say. The flowers and the thorns are on the same bush. We have to decide which we'll notice. If we want roses, they come with thorns. Brilliant, graceful, fragrant flowers alongside fiercely pointed thorns. Some people talk about thorns all day and forget about the blossoms. My mother and I try to appreciate the blooms and steer clear of the thorns, even though we know they're there.

I guess "everything's coming up roses" for me. What a pretty day!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

November Moon

I wish I had a camera - or knew how to use a camera - to take a picture of the moon.

I think of the moon as a friend. She is a companion in my evening walks, an encourager in my morning drives. I like to smile at the moon and imagine faraway loved ones smiling back.

I thought, as I watched this month the growing fullness of the moon, that I'd like to take a picture when she was round and silver in my sky. I can't get the camera to see what I see, though. Maybe I'll make notes about this moon, this November moon, in the year of our Lord 2013, and maybe I'll be able to compare this moon with other moons to come.

This moon, tonight, is just past full. A tiny slice has been taken from the upper right curve of her fullness. I saw her first in open sky, but my most familiar view is from my back porch, through trees that have shed at this point a little over half their leaves. If I'd been able to take a  picture, it would have shown black, mostly bare branches, and a few mixed deciduous leaves still deciding whether to stay or go. The moon's face would have been white against a black, cloudless sky. I missed seeing the fullest moment because we had heavy rains last night. The evening air is cool and crisp like the moonlight, and the wet leaves covering the porch send shiny smiles back upward.

Hello, moon. Thanks for the smiles.