Looking out my window this morning the sunshine was so bright on the green hedge behind my house that if I was going by just what I saw.... I would think for sure it was 80 degrees out there.
The sky was deep blue, the bush dark green, the red cardinal at the bird feeder almost looked on fire in the bright morning sunlight as he pecked away looking for his favorite seeds inside the bird feeder on my deck.
After being in Miami for the last several weeks I have become conditioned to wearing tee shirts and sandals and expecting it to me warm outside. While down there it was as if winter had taken a holiday, warm was once again normal and cold was but a distant memory.
I got to tell you, it definitely looked warm out there this morning but I was not in Florida anymore.
Only when I looked up, past the hedge did I see the lacy, filigree patterns that the Poplars and the Oak Trees make in the woodsy area beyond the green hedge. High up above the still brown Oak Trees was a crown of dark green pine needles, their tall brown barks mixed in with the other Northern trees without leaves and a stark reminder against the brilliant blue of the sky that it could not possibly be 80 degrees out there at 8 A.M. in the morning.
I touched the glass on the bay window where my desk is and alas it was cold, not from Central Air Conditioning but from cold air outside on the very beautiful sunny morning.
Oy, what's a girl gonna do believe what she sees and what her mind tells her or what she knows?
It's still winter, it's March 1st, the 25th of Adar.....not quite ready for Spring let alone Summer.
I opened the door slowly onto the deck and was hit in the face by a cold wind blowing in my face...
It looked sunny. It looked warm. Appearances can be deceiving.
Sometimes a layer of low clouds fills the sky in Miami on the way home from work and when the sun hits the clouds they look like a far off mountain range in the distance. Many years of living in L.A. conditioned me to see mountains off in the distance, even when in Miami my first thought is a memory of L.A. and a ride through the canyons at sunset.
Some of us are conditioned to be negative and some of us are conditioned to be positive and some of us have taught ourselves to look for the positive in every thing.
I get emails from friends who look at the riots in the Middle East as the end of the world, they send me Doomsday Websites talking about the downfall of civilization. I also get emails from friends who see the ever changing situation there as a positive sign of good things, a new world order and the revelation of miracles.
What do you see?
What do you believe?
A last example .....
One December afternoon, late in the day, when I was finally relieved from my duty on the reference desk in a busy library and I went into the lunchroom to get a drink and rest my tired eyes a bit. Understand, it's a common custom in December for people to bring to work their holiday bounty and share the calories with everyone else. I was tired, it was late in the day and I looked down to see the most delicious square tin pan with meatloaf and what seemed to be a ketchup sort of topping, wow it looked good. I took a sip of cold soda, sat down at another table and enjoyed the peace and quiet. Juanita came in with her ever present smile and asked me if I had a piece of her chocolate cherry brownie cake. I smiled, told her no I missed that and then suddenly I realized, the light went on in my head... chocolate cherry... brown and red... I put on my glasses and looked over at the meatloaf and realized it was in fact a chocolate, cherry brownie cake. I leaned down and took a whiff of the most fragrant chocolate, cherry frosting I've ever had the chance to smell.
Who knew? Well, Juanita knew seeing as she baked the brownies.
Me, with the meat and potatoes mind and born with the lack of a sweet tooth saw what I wanted to see.."food" and it never occurred to me it was brownies. Now, my chocoholic mother would have seen chocolate cake with cherry topping... trust me.
What do you see? Miracles happening daily or problems everywhere?
Appearances can be deceiving, the scent of a chocolate cake is definitive. The rush of cold, fresh air in your face on a brisk March morning can be much more definitive than what you see when peering through the window.
Perhaps that is why the Rebbe said that we will smell Moshiach in the air.... we will feel it vs just simply seeing it because sometimes what we think we see is really something else but if you smell it.... you believe it.
Have a beautiful day...rich with scents and colors and the type of weather you like the most.
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