A beautiful view

I went outside this evening and took some pictures of my backyard.  I took the pictures to show all of you why I don't like fall.  This is quite picturesque, but think of the hours upon hours blowing all these leaves away before the snow falls.  I look at this  and think of aching muscles and exercises in futility.

I left the picture up on the screen and went away for a bit to take care of something.  When I returned I just sat and looked at this picture.  And I thought to myself....this is my backyard.  It is really so beautiful, and I am not enjoying that beauty one little bit!  I am looking at the leaves accumulate and I am looking at it with all the negativity I can muster.  I am thinking about all the hours I have spent blowing leaves, only to go inside and look out the window at all that remains.  But what a waste that is.  The leaves may very well defeat me again this year.....as they have every year in the past.  I am not a pro at yard work....that is for sure!!   But look at the beauty literally in my backyard.  The beauty that we see is filtered through our attitude and how we look at the world.   If we look for beauty we find it.   I really am extraordinarily lucky to have this view right in my backyard.

So, I am going to try to push out the foreboding thoughts of leaf removal....and a million other little jobs on my to-do list this weekend....and I am just going to enjoy the colors and enjoy the view for as long as it remains.  I will look out and realize that we can either take life as a gift or as a burden.  The choice to be happy and positive is truly my own....and always has been.

"Use what you have, use what the world gives you.  Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter's deadness; harvest; orange, gold amber; cool nights and the smell of fire.  Our tree-lined streets are set ablaze, our kitchens filled with the smells of nostalgia: apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself.  The leaves as they spark into wild color just before they die are the world's oldest performance art, and everything we see is celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white silence of winter."
~ Shauna Niequist