Yesterday’s visit with my good friends from several years past was a great reminder that there is so much ahead of us, and our attitude can completely decide how things will be.

We visited folks who sing in the choir at a church I served just after college. They were a wonderful support there: she was an assistant organist and pianist, page turner, organ student; he was a source of sage advice and humor, and constant reminders that it was “their job” to train me, sometimes by fire!  (He was right.) We have kept in touch over the years, and so I brought my son yesterday to visit them in their wonderful home in rural CT, where the sky is massive above an open meadow, and the birds and wildflowers are the majority of the neighbors.

Here’s what was truly inspiring: These folks are not “young” by the calendar – I’ve forgotten how old, but know they were certainly born well before my parents – but they are younger in spirit than most of my own contemporaries.  And their youth comes from simple pleasures, not world travel or fancy possessions, but enjoyment of the simple beauty that surrounds them – her collection of musical instruments, several of which she has built herself; his love of airplanes, evidenced by the small models that float above the garden. A recent accident that proved to be a setback in their lives involved a toboggan!

I, for one, can get bogged down with the constant demands of life, and then completely miss the joy and beauty that is right in front of me.  Days like yesterday remind me to look a little closer, see the perfection in every detail, and live in it.