Where I Was

"BE WHERE YOU ARE."

--The Universe

Sometimes this is easier said than done, and sometimes it is easy. 

Last weekend we went away with a few Boy Scout families to the snow. Packing up was not easy, getting the heck out of Dodge was not easy, being there with 50 people we didn't really know that well was not easy, getting home across the pass was not easy. 

Thankfully though, on Saturday I was able to spend 90 blissful minutes in the woods, alone, on cross country skis. 

Some moments, some places, some times make it almost impossible not to be where you are. 

I found being out in the snowy woods all alone to be one of those times. It was so quiet, so peaceful, so incredibly beautiful, that I just couldn't help but take it all in. 

Here are three beautiful things from my time in the woods last weekend:

1) Frozen water in a ditch looks like a small gray pond surrounded by snow;

2) The sound of snowflakes hitting the electric wires, somewhere between a zap and a ping;

3) Lying in the middle of the cross country ski trail after a fall and finding myself in a circle of snow-covered trees swaying in the wind.

Open Your Eyes!

"Love lives in everything -

Little or big.

Open your eyes."

--Unknown, from the guest book in the ladies' room at Thrive Cafe

Every time I go to Thrive I make sure to include a trip to the ladies' room to read their guest book. I always find something worthwhile written there. 

On my most recent visit, it included this little gem of a reminder. I feel like it's like a love poem from The Universe to all of us. 

And I believe it has worked on me in the days since I read it. 

A couple of weeks ago I was walking home from dropping the kids off at school, texting and emailing as I went, when I suddenly looked up and saw the beauty all around me - the pure blue sky, the dark green foliage, the fresh clean air - and I realized I was missing all of it. 

I couldn't remember the last time I had made that walk without my head in my iPhone and that struck me as a little bit sad.

So I decided to try and "just walk" for the rest of the year, whenever I was walking. 

I did well for about a week and then the pull of old habits sucked me back in, so far that I didn't even realize it until I sat down to write today, found this quote, and remembered that I was supposed to be opening my eyes. 

So today I recommit myself to that and ask you to join me. What beauty - what love - in your life are you missing? Open your eyes to it!