Look and See

     I dropped the kids off at the bus stop yesterday and went for my run.  It was so gorgeous out there, especially for the end of November.  Gull Lake was still ice free and calm as could be.  The pine needles on the road were crisp with frost and crunched beneath my feet.  The woods were quiet as the sun rose above the trees.  I wanted to savor each step I took and each sight I saw because I knew the next time I would see it things wouldn’t look quite the same.

     Isn’t that always the case though?  Things never stay exactly the same and are constantly changing.  Some changes are subtle and barely detectable while others are obvious.  Like when a foot of snow falls everyone takes notice but when just a few flakes freshen the landscape only a few see it.  Maybe we just need to take the time to really look, to see it through new eyes.

     I can ask guests what they saw on the drive up to Voyageur in the summer and they sometimes will reply, "Nothing really."  I don’t understand that because I don’t know how a person couldn’t take notice of all of the wonderous things along the way.  How each inch of the Gunflint Trail contains something different and unique.  Walking through the woods you can see things up close to compare but even when driving by you can take notice of the beautiful things.

     What are the beautiful things in your life that you are missing because you aren’t taking the time to notice?  Are you driving by so quickly you don’t even see them? Was I only looking so closely because I knew it would be awhile before I saw it again?   Are those beautiful things always right in your face but you won’t take the time to look at them and really see them? 

     Imagine what you would see if you thought it was the last time you would ever see it.  How powerful life would be if we could always look, see and savor the things around us.