Just a lil' somthin' - ie: Thank You, God for the Sunshine!

Forty degrees never felt so good to me as it did this morning walking to the subway. It was if the clouds parted just for me, just for fifteen minutes of sunshine. I know rain is in the forecast all day today, and then it's supposed to be below freezing the entire remainder of the week, but this morning it was lovely. And when I heard the birds singing I realized it had been a long, long time since I had heard the sound. I think they too, may find it easier to have a cheery disposition on sunny days!

In addition to sunshine and birds I looked into windows of Le Pain Quotidien in my neighborhood or Le Pan as I call it- and I loved seeing people sitting and drinking coffee out of huge white ceramic mugs and eating things like soft boiled eggs and smoked salmon. The communal table was beautiful- all wooden and bare, unfinished. In the window by the counter turnovers and muffins boldly boast with glittery crumbles of sugar on top. Croissants and hard rolls and things with apple and plum and ginger were arranged in baskets and bowls and at varying heights- so lovely. Bread never looked so enticing as it does in this storefront window during the bitter cold days of winter.

I also saw a Boxer named Lucy out for a walk with her purple doggie booties on. (I only know this was her name because her owner commanded, "Come on Lucy. Come on girl.") It reminded me of my parent's Boxer Marley. Although Marley seems to bounce more and smiles when she meets someone for the first time. Lucy was more meditative, introverted and if I could ask her, I'm sure she'd tell me the glass was half empty. It may have something to do with Marley being raised, mostly, around an adolescent boy, but I think New York City living could be beating Lucy down.

And on the train I read from Madeleine L'engle's Walking on Water. This is an amazing book which discusses Christian art and how God speaks through art. I highly recommend it, even though I'm still in the first chapter.

So far she's discussed topics that I've found fascinating and controversial (especially considering her age/ upbringing/ that the book was first published in 1980) such as:

• God's ability to speak to us through "non-Christian" art/ artist (and her loathing of the term "Christian Artists...."
• The importance of keeping language alive- The King James Bible, Shakespeare and The Book of Common Prayer. How so much is lost in translation & when we dumb-down what is written, for the everyday man, we loose so much
• How being still and being present are necessary in order to hear & be used
• That we don't have to understand in order to obey
• That if you feel you are an artists and think that you might die without your creative outlet- your art- then you are. And that it's not the artists choice, but the art's itself, when it should be born.

It's a really, really great read!

From the book: "As Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard says, "To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist."