Glitter in the Snow!

I love this time of year! It starts to get cold and then before you know it the snow starts falling. You have Thanksgiving which in my family brings wonderful food from both my mom's house and my dad's. It usually also brings my maternal grandparents into town for the weekend, which is nice since I grew up about 1200 miles away from them and for so many years didn't really have them around. Then after Thanksgiving we haul out all the Christmas decorations and everything goes up. The lights, the trees, the garland, the mechanical reindeer and sleigh, and ALL of the Christmas CD's. Something about this time of year just makes me more grateful about all things in my life.

Sometimes I don't think we realize just how precious life is. Today for some reason I remembered something my son said to me last year in the car on our way home from school. There was about 2-3 feet of snow on the ground. It was the beginning of December so we had a tendency to drive through some neighborhoods on our way home to look at lights. We were almost home and Dakota out of the blue asks me, "Mommy, did God put glitter in the snow?" I had to smile and after a split second of me thinking I had the cutest kid on the face of the earth responded with, "No honey, why?" "Cause it sure does sparkle!", he said. After thinking about what he said I realized that I had never noticed before just how much new snow did sparkle and the beauty of it. I told myself that I was going to try really hard to notice the beauty of all seasons for the next year and I have.....

In Spring (the season I hate the most due to my horrible allergies), I noticed how the rain washes all the dirty snow away and everything looks clean. How soon after the snow disappears the grass becomes like a green blanket again covering all the brown from the winter. How a puddle of water can become fun again by standing in it with your bare feet and splashing around like a little kid. The birds start chirping again and the air smells fresh and alive.

In Summer, I noticed how the tiny grains of sand felt on my feet and how fun it can be to fish standing in the water up to my calves. I learned that I care about the icky, slimy fish that we caught. Cared enough about them to learn how to take them off my hook this year so I could throw them back into the water. I noticed their breathing patterns while dangling from the end of my line and felt bad, wondering what was going through their mind at that very moment. I could almost see the fear in their bulging little fish eyes. I noticed the baby bird learning how to fly for the first time and hoped it would be safe until it succeeded in taking flight.

In Fall, I noticed just when the leaves started to change color and just how beautiful the red and purple leaves were. I noticed when the leaves started to crumple and fall off the only home they had ever known. I noticed how once the tree had become bare, that the leaves lay all over the yard and for the first time since I was a kid I raked them up into a pile and kicked them everywhere. I noticed the leaves laying on the sidewalk while my mom and I walked the dog and I kicked those leaves too!

Tonight is the first night this year we are supposed to get snow and I plan to see it's beauty and it's sparkle all over again.......After all God spilled the glitter bottle for all of us to notice. When will you start?

“Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.” ~Ashley Smith quotes