"Oh, The Weather Outside Is Frightful".....

Ok, "frightful" might be a bit strong but it has been yucky out there. Although, it is Nov. 5 and we are just now getting hit with the white stuff, I guess it could be worse.

When I got home from work this morning my upstairs neighbors were on their front steps marvelling at the winter wonderland they had woken up to. They just moved here this summer from Australia and this is the first time they had ever seen snow! It was really quite interesting to see it from their point of view. Tuie kept saying how beautiful it was as she held out her hand to catch the falling flakes that were big and fluffy at that point. She and her husband and son had been up early that morning to play in the snow, as evidenced by the miniature snowman sitting in the middle of the front lawn. I scoffed when I heard her gush about how beautiful she thought it was, and I made some comments about how it wasn't too bad now but wait until it gets colder, (they didn't realize that it can and will get much colder.)

Then I stopped my disparaging remarks for a moment and looked at the blanket of white that lay cold and frozen over the lawns and trees in the neighborhood. I thought what it must be like for this family in a new country, experiencing things for the first time. And I realized it was beautiful, very beautiful in fact. I'm still not a big fan of snow or cold, but it reminded me that if you try you can always find beauty and wonder in everything around you. You may not like what you see or experience, but you can find a way to appreciate it.

I guess it's that eternal, or terminal as some people would say, optimism that has always kept me going. But even sometimes I lose sight of the "glass is half full" mentallity and need a little something (a brick or a brick wall to fall on my head) to remind me that nothing is ever as bad as it seems.