let it rain, let it pour

We had the most marvelous couple days of rain.  It was drizzling, it was raining, it was cloudy, it was wet.  And it smelled so good and it felt so good and, oh, did it ever put me in a holiday frame of mind.  But, I will admit that in the whirl of this fantastic holiday season, I didn't slow down for one picture.  Not-a-one of Nate dressed up in his rain gear (oh that boy loves rain gear, from his fireman rain slicker to his Lightning McQueen rain boots to mama's old J.Crew rain hat), nothing of jumping over, around and into puddles in our driveway, nothing of trees dripping fat drops of water to wet ground below, nothing of rose petals on the ground, pushed by those first drops of rain that so rarely seem to make it this far south.

Yet, I take heart that I saw it all.  I took moments here and there to notice.  But I was so focused on getting to the next thing that I couldn't take time to pull out the camera.  And be still for the amount of time it might take me to take a picture that I loved, or at least liked.  And, yes, I finished all of the gifting on my list, I was able to get together with some of my favorite ladies for a brunch, chat it up and work at my volunteering gig and enjoy Nate's first play(!) but, in hindsight, I see what I may have missed in the between moments too.  But there will be more rain (even here in the southlands) and even more moments and that is the lovely part about life.

Here's something that came to my inbox today that got me thinking about those 'in between' spaces...a reminder that even though I am reveling and enjoying and am having way too much fun being busy, to remember to really see what's going on- even during the pauses may give me a glimpse into another world.  I like the question it asks- Can we see better?

We miss a lot, almost everything, in fact, in our world. Our task-focused filters take care of that, selecting only what we need.  We need to get to work. Have some lunch. Find that report. Water the garden. Go out on a date. We see what we need to see, often for purposes of survival -- or survival of the species. Gregory Bateson, speaking of beauty, said aesthetic judgment is selection of a fact.  We create the sight even as we become conscious of it. We do not simply see it. In our daily lives, who or what is doing the selecting? And why? Is this predetermined? Can we -- in the here and now – make a change?  Can we see further?  Can we see better?  Can we  even better our world?

Opening our vision is a first step in Everyday Creativity.  

--Ruth Richards, in Everyday Creativity

I'm glad for the reminder, smack dab in the middle of this busy time, to really ask myself: Can I see better?  Can I see further?  And along the way, try to remember to bring the camera.