[blockquote source=”Anthony Doerr, About Grace”]”In the infinite permutations of an ice crystal, everything repeats itself, but, really, from another point of view…nothing repeats itself. The arms go out, forming dendrites, sectored plates, the same angle every time, but the final product – because of wind, because of molecular vibration, because of rate of growth and temperature – is never the same.”[/blockquote]

We had just a bit of an ice storm yesterday. Nothing too serious, mind you – but, oh what a most spectacular site!

The tree branches were bowed under the weight of their new crystal encasement, as the rising sun set the whole world aglow.

“The trees have diamonds, Mommy,” my little one used to say…and always with the wide-eye wonderment of having only just discovered something for the very first time.

There’s a newness that comes with being ‘just so very small’…when all the world takes on an amplified hue, and everything in it…a ‘fresh coat of paint.’

When our eyes have formed their keenest vision – long before the fog of ‘growing up’ has had its chance to settle in.

[blockquote source=”Thích Nhất Hạnh”]“Each thought, each action in the sunlight of awareness becomes sacred.”[/blockquote]

If only we might learn to maintain this view. To see this world in such a way as to perpetually break through the ‘that which we are accustomed to”…

To approach each day with rich fullness of heart….and in order to appreciate the magnitude of these gifts that have been shared.

And, it is most certainly a gift, my dears…

The mornings bring forth a brand new light…and each breath, an opportunity for awakening.

And, it’s only ever really a choice my dears – to see, or not to see.

My dears, when you look out your window what do you see? Are there diamonds draped elegantly from the outstretched arms of a tree?

Or, do you shudder at the bitter cold of yet another relentless winter day?

Either way, it doesn’t change that which is before you. And yet, to some…they see wonderment, and others…a foreboding dread.

Sometimes I wonder, if it isn’t the heart that determines our view?

And, shaped throughout these many years by the infinite permutations of you…?

It certainly does give rise to a rather thought-filled introspection…and, perhaps a pause to carefully examine the true nature of all that has been shared.

Much love, my dears…