The Falling Leaves Outside my Window

It’s late on a typical fall night; I go to bed once again in the early morning hours tired from the constant days and weeks of demands. I greet each day stressed and pressed with too much to accomplish and tired of spending so much time working in front of a computer. I feel trapped, in a seemingly never ending cycle of work and stress, never looking outside but to gauge what to wear as I rush to my next destination.

One morning as the fruits of my labors were beginning to lift the pressure and I was finally digging my way out of tests and work projects, I began to feel a slight release from my usual gripping schedule. I took in a deep whiff of the autumn air as I rushed to start my car for another hectic day. The fall leaves blew effortlessly off the car as I backed out of the driveway. Still on auto pilot, I paused for a few moments to check passing traffic. I looked down the street; I was momentarily struck motionless by the site in front of me.

I sat there spell bound by the beauty of nature, the sun brightly shinning over the majestic mountains, the fall leave that just days ago were barely notice outside my window. “Look what I have been missing,” I told myself. I had literally been trapped in a vortex that was sucking vitality out of me. In this fast paced, competitive world, we are so harshly judged by our success and accomplishments or rather by the lack there of.

How do we find happiness and peace if we don’t take a moment to recognize the good things that are right in front of our faces? It’s the little things in life that make it beautiful. Too often they go unnoticed when we are too busy. Many of us are too focused on the tasks of life, to live life to its fullest. Every once in a while it’s therapeutic to take the time to stop and step outside. Seeing the beauty outside our windows may require stepping outside our boxes we have built, whether literal or metaphorically speaking the challenge is the same.

Photo by: Josh Stephens - Fall Leaves at Snow Basin.