We’re Not Going

To Tell You What This is…at First

In this year of pandemic, when our lives have changed so dramatically, we are all learning how to create new, meaningful events in our lives. It’s not about just filling time, our days are about actual real discovery and true delight.

The other night I backed into my driveway at home. In my neighborhood everything is dark. When the moon is not out, I can see all the stars in the universe. On this night, at the end of the driveway was this spectacular arrangement of white and green lights, white light flowing down, green shooting in. I sat mesmerized. I’d never seen anything like it. I watched for the longest time with the eyes of a child. It was so beautiful in the black velvet night, I stepped out of the car, took my smartphone out and recorded the light show. Again, it was beautiful. It was surreal.

This morning, I showed it to my son and said, “What do you think this is?”

He said, “It looks like Dessert Storm, Wolf Blitzer and the aerial assault of Baghdad.”

“It does,” I said. “This was at the end of my driveway, last night.”

“It was?” he said.

“It was lit icicles with light trailing down and a 12-foot Christmas tree with green lights that had fallen over. The combination, 100-feet away was breathtaking. If you look closely you’ll see the star at the top of the Christmas tree.”

Here is my advice for the new year we are all coming into. Look for the ordinary and be present to it. Look for the unusual, or in this case, the icicles and fallen Christmas tree…a problem that may actually be beautiful, fascinating, or intriguing. To do this well, we have to slow and we must be present to many moments throughout the day. In this state of being, we will discover much that is new and beautiful, too.