Beauty is fleeting, just try to enjoy it

It’s a cold and clear day. I sit in the living room to read and glance up at the Christmas tree. I haven’t taken the time today to turn on the lights. I notice golden light from the window striking the tree on one side. The ornaments gleam in the natural light. It’s beautiful.

But I notice that the sunlight is not reflected in the dozens of crystal icicles that I bought this year and scattered throughout the tree with just this sort of morning in mind. Almost immediately, I imagine how to rearrange the ornaments to take advantage of the light. Stop.

Sometimes our careful plans don’t catch the light. But that doesn’t necessarily diminish the beauty around us. And, in the time it took me to write this, the sunlight has moved on. Enjoy beauty whenever it breaks through, I tell myself. Don’t waste time figuring out how to enhance it or even to make it last.