Let There Be Lights

A fierce debate often ensues when one person believes Christmas lights should be hung the moment the last trick-or-treaters leave their abode and another person believes the stroke of midnight on November 30^th is the earliest possible date any form of holiday decoration is allowable.
I pondered this as I recently walked among the holiday lights at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens.
Personally, I have never put up outdoor lights — perhaps because I spent almost twenty years renting and it just wasn’t “my territory.”
However, I do put up a Christmas tree that remains decorated until spring, most years.
The lights are so comforting, so enthralling, so enchanting, that I can’t seem to take the tree down (um, yes, it is artificial).
Even though I can be a Grinch at times, I don’t want to rob anyone of the wonderful feeling lights give me and potentially give others.
So, no matter what time of year it may be, let there be lights!

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.

Busyness: The Enemy of Wonder

I felt overwhelmed by day-to-day life and ashamed of that feeling since I have fewer responsibilities than the average person.
My head was filled with deadlines and chores and stress was gnawing my insides.
Driving home from work I heard a whisper: Don’t go home; go for a walk.
I knew that voice well and had to obey. When Spirit makes a suggestion, I’ve learned it’s just easier to give in immediately. By resisting, I’m only harming myself.
I passed the turn to our house and kept driving up the coast to a trail I love at MacKerricher State Park.
I didn’t have time to walk there, which was precisely why I needed to.
The past Sunday I had heard a message from a friend at Quaker meeting that included the phrase: busyness is the enemy of wonder.
The walk was simultaneously invigorating and relaxing.
I stopped to watch ocean froth spurting from a small blowhole in the rocks and became mesmerized. I even got squirted in the eye peering down into the hole with childlike curiosity, which only made me giggle. When I turned to go back, the sky was already darkening. How much time had passed?
Wonder had allowed me to participate in timelessness—a result of being totally absorbed in delight.
I felt refreshed
and ready to face any challenge ahead.

Photos © Sondra Sula.

Take a walk with me by reading my most recent daily devotional book, Meditations on Mendocino by Sondra Sula. Available on Amazon in paperback or Kindle versions.

If you’d prefer a daily river walk, Reflections on the Fox River and Beyond by Sondra Sula, might just be the book for you.