While sitting at my craft table/desk this morning and writing in my journal, I looked out the window in front of me. I noted the exceptionally bright and glorious sunshine which always puts me in a good mood. However on closer inspection, my idyllic view of the beautiful blue sky bathing in sunshine was obstructed by a drab wooden fence which lies between me and my next door neighbor. Actually, our lot positions us next to five neighbors but from this window I can see over the fence to one particular neighbor's house. This house could use a coat of paint, a few minor repairs and in its current state, it's not pretty. So, here we have it: ugly house, ugly fence.
But, in this drab scene sits a huge holly with shiny leaves of deep, dark green and magnificent red berries. It's a common bush but stands very festive and quite showy in a place surrounded by drabness. Then, while still basking in my previous thoughts of sunshine and blue skies, I had an idea.
I put down my journal and pen and went outside to my potting table. I pulled on my gardening gloves, grabbed my clippers and went to the back fence where I could, standing on my tiptoes and arms outstretched, barely reach a few limbs of my neighbor's holly. I pulled hard and clipped off a half dozen magnificent sprigs. Theoretically, I guess you could say, I pilfered my neighbor's holly but justified it by declaring that the holly, in fact, could use a good pruning.
After retrieving my prize, I strategically placed said holly branches in a basket on our coffee table. Even James noticed them and commented on how pretty and Christmas-y they look.
I went back to my journal where I was moments before being distracted by sunshine, sky, and the looted holly. Looking out the window again, I thought about that lone holly bush. I needed to look beyond the drab fence and the drab house to see something beautiful, something vibrant and alive. And isn't that the way life can be? It's often times uneventful, humdrum, and boring, especially during a pandemic. But, if we take time to look beyond ourselves we might be able to see the beauty in the simple little things that surround us.
This beautiful Haiku was written by a teenage boy named Eric, who, for such a young person, gets it: “It’s the simple things in your life that make up the bulk of it. The mundane is where we live and we end up missing most of it. We find it again in the silence and in attention of everyday life.”
I am not necessarily endorsing cutting branches off a neighbor's shrub but I am suggesting that there may be something beautiful in the midst of the noise and confusion that clutter our lives. And it may be found in the simplicity of a holly bush.
