It snowed really hard a few days ago and, as I was driving into my office to meet a client, I noticed that the snow on the side of the road is no longer sparkling. It’s more gray-brown than anything and looks really beat up. I imagined though, as I passed the piles in a blur of grayness, if I were to take the time to lift that top layer, I would find snow that was still sparkling and pristinely white.
I realized that people are like that too. That, sometimes, life just gets heavy and dark and we tend to wear it on our faces. I know that I have had that haunted, exhausted, life-just-isn’t-going-too-well-right-now look on my face often – more often than I care to really look at. I know that, in those moments, I have felt every single teeny-tiny movement of my body as being excrutiatingly huge and laborious.
It is during those times that I forget what life is truly about. I forget that life can be easeful. I forget that life can be magical. I forget that life, my life, is a gift… a big, beautiful, creative gift. And I get weighed down by the outer, crusty layer that is taking on all the crap floating around me in my universe. Sometimes, I get so bogged down by it all that I forget that I can choose to shake it off, lift that crusty layer and breathe.
I am grateful to be breathing today. Great big, easeful breaths. And I am grateful that, today, I have shaken off the schmultz and I am sparkling.
