“When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator.”

– Mahatma Gandhi

Yesterday, we spent our evening in a gym, once again watching our granddaughter’s team play basketball.  This week has been a good one for this activity, because the gym is air-conditioned and the temperature outdoors has been 100 degrees.  It seems that the heat wave is all that anyone talks about — how to avoid the heat, how to keep the garden alive, how to stay hydrated, and when will it end.  It makes me laugh when I realize that we had the same obsession, only four months ago, about snow.  Extremes of any kind have a way of knocking us off our center and grabbing our attention so that the rest of the world sort of fades into the background.

When the basketball games were done, we braced ourselves for the return to the blast furnace and stepped outside into the heavy evening air.  I glanced toward the west and was greeted by a gorgeous sight.

A hazy mist had settled over the mountains and extended its reach into the clouds above.  There, in the center of the haze, muted just enough to allow us to view it, was the sun.  How my thoughts about him changed in that moment!  No longer was he the perpetrator of the heat.  Now he was the center of attention in a spectacular light show we are treated to every evening.  This morning began with the same hazy sky, and the sun had to work extra hard to liberate himself from the clouds.  As his struggle succeeded, the sky became a brilliant blue and the gray haze gave way to fluffy white clouds.

The promise of rain is building, and soon the same people who have complained about snow and heat will be doing a rain dance of joy as it brings us relief.  I thought about how much we take for granted — how completely blind we become to the magnificence of the world we live in.  We spend each day surrounded by beauty, and we yawn at it until an extreme of one sort or another shouts in our faces to pay attention.  How much rain do you suppose it would take before we complain about that as well?

The universe could no doubt operate just as smoothly if everything were black and white.  If we never had seen a red apple, I’m sure a gray one would taste just fine.  We could mow the gray lawn and look up into the gray sky and breathe in nothing but gray.  Instead, we have been given the gift of color and sparkling light and splendid beauty to delight our souls at every turn.  Why, then, do we spend even one minute living as though our lives were set in black and white?  Drink in the color!  Drink in the light!  Let the heat wave and the snowstorm have their place, but don’t forget to look around and see the things that always are there, made beautiful just for our enjoyment.