Today I saw every tree in the forest with a beautiful coat of thick frost. What was an evergreen was now an ice tree, a dormant hardwood a gentle shimmering diamond sculpture. What caught me as a thought more deeply about this beautiful landscape was that to achieve this pristine ice blanket the forest must remain still. The wind must die down to allow this to form. What is normally a disturbance must settle.
How often in our lives do we miss the beauty all around us because we cannot calm down? Do we take the time to watch our children resting quietly? Do we marvel at the small pieces of art that God has put in nature? Do we take the time to catch our breath and see the beauty within ourselves? If we are to see the simple perfection all around us and within our lives, we must find time for stillness. We must take enough deep breaths to admire and appreciate the ephemeral splendor that surrounds every moment in our lives as it may be gone in an instant. This stillness is a practice. It is a skill that can be honed to improve our lives. It is harder every year as the distractions mount, but to appreciate something beautiful every day is to live a full life every day.
Stoic Optimism 