TAKE ANOTHER LOOK

From my study window the world is gorgeous. The Sun is bright, the sky is deep blue. The house across the street is splendorous in its adornment of sparkling white snow. How could the world be more beautiful?

Despite the beauty of the picture, I am weary of it. Very, very tired of Winter. I don't think I have ever experienced a February without one day above average temperature. The average high temperature for today is around 33F. We may reach 15F if we are lucky and if the average high is 33F, then in a normal year there are highs in the forties or even fifties.

We moved here on September 15^th. I was completely out of it. I could only walk from my bed or bathroom to my chair. Jamie had to wait on me hand and foot. I must have been improving all along but I didn't notice it much until the middle of October, by the end of November I could walk without a cane. I started improving rapidly after that. By January I was raring to go outside. I wanted to walk. I wanted to feel the outside air. I was able to go to the store by myself. I was able to do the family shopping, that was great, but it wasn't like really being outside. Our mail is delivered a short block away and I can walk down and get it. Everyday this February the road has been treacherous, it has been that slippery. I have to use my walker because if I fall down there would be no way to get up. That's no fun.

Oh yes! I long for a switch in the weather pattern that would bring at least normal highs for the day. The weather will probably turn on a dime the middle of March.

Okay! I will go back to that first paragraph and see only the beauty. Its there! Perception is everything.

What we see in the world is what we bring into focus. I listened to the Cohen testimony on Public Radio for awhile this Morning. What a painful, awful world is depicted. How could we be so crazy? How did we get there? Yet, like turning my chair around in my study and seeing the unquestionable beauty that is there, I can turn off the radio and see something else.

Perhaps we should not concern ourselves with changing the world. Perhaps we should concern ourselves with changing ourselves. Perhaps we should concentrate on changing how we see the world. If we choose to see only the love in the world, won't the world have to change?

We are creators. We expand what we see and love. We can't help that. We grow what we are in-love with. Why waste energy fretting and fuming about a hopeless world when we are quite capable of seeing the world we dream of; yes we are! We can see it in the eyes of those we love. We see it everyday in the smiles of strangers. It expresses itself when we laugh heartily.

Come on. Come on. It is a decision we make together. Look out upon a beautiful world. See the love. Look for that tsunami of love that is coming to engulf us.

Love and Peace, Gregg