I was coming into the house from another dog walk when this heart shaped piece of an oak leaf caught my attention.

It was strategically placed by the wind, agent of the Universe,  right by the back door, in the snow, so that I would notice it upon entering and exiting my home.

Love from the Universe. Everywhere.

One night, in minus 50 degree F wind chills in February, I went out with my dogs Harper and Cinnamon, for their evening constitutional.

You can imagine how much I wanted to go out of my warm house.

What awaited me was a winter wonderland of sparkling snowflakes, reflecting in the light, so brightly, that I could see individual formations of the flakes.

And to think I might have missed it!

When I become present in any moment, there is a palpable feeling of spaciousness.

When I have a feeling of spaciousness, I slow down and pay attention to what really matters.

Harold was driving us in a snow storm, when we were approaching some emergency vehicles on the road.

Someone ahead of us was needing some love, and I was able to send it, because I was paying attention in the fullness of the moment, rather than locked up in my mind wondering how much of a delay this would mean for us.

Moments of love. Everywhere.

I am continually amazed at the moments I have just missed in my life, when I was somewhere else in my mind.

For just a second, during this sunset, the sun peeked out from a sliver in my cold, icy world, and I saw it.

The sky was a solid frigid mass of cloud cover, and the ground, a solid mass of snow cover, all of it white, and then blue, from the camera’s perspective.

Then, for just an instant, the sun showed itself in a sliver of light that beckoned me to fly out of my winter world, into another landscape of sun and light.

How many moments like these have been calling my imagination to come out and play?

In my continuing promise to myself to pay attention to the moments of my life, I caught not only this sunset, but also the reflection that popped in for just an instant, while I took the photo.

When I looked again, the reflection, and the sunset, were gone.

Who says there aren’t fairies of winter?

At just the moment of sunset last night, the world lit up in a wash of color.

Silly me, thinking that winter is a monochrome world.

We’ve had a lot of very cold days this winter, giving us some frost and ice magic.

One morning, the frost had obscured all but a tiny view out one of our windows.

I saw my ordinary, everyday world completely differently with this tiny view! The portal drew me in, with excitement and possibility, and my imagination went wild. What could be out there, in this winter wonderland?

Sometimes it’s the changing scenery around something that causes us to see a familiar sight anew.

One of my stained glass creations looked totally different to me today when it was framed by the new snow outside.

I should never assume that I have actually seen everything that I could see about something……new moments bring new dimensions of the spirit of things.

I notice that in my rush to get somewhere else, I often miss the moment. I’ve shared that recognition before.

What I’ve also noticed is that I then miss the feeling of the moment, too.

Here is a simple moment where I caught myself and stopped to feel the welcoming, belonging, warm feeling of home, on a cold snowy night, when I really “took in” the light and the path.

How many nurturing, enveloping moments are waiting for me, just to take them in?

I’m playing with noticing my life differently this year, being present to the moments before they change. While they are being like they will never quite be, exactly, again.

Seems like there are a lot of those moments this winter.

In this one, it felt like the sky was brooding, in the power of the cold and the wind. Such a great moment.