34. OVERLOOK

Our master bathroom window has the best view in the house. Large plate glass windows frame a carpet of scrub oak trees in the lower portion of our lot. Rising above them are the angled rooftops of some of our neighbors. The scene stretches out to the Great Salt Lake and the southern tip of Antelope Island, all shimmery in the sunlight. Rising majestic, further out, are the lovely Oquirrh mountains. I stand each morning at that window and marvel at the layers of God’s majesty that, unless I force myself to pause, I tend to overlook.

This morning, pondering the word of the day – overlook – I scanned this scene and flipped the word. Decided, instead, to look over what is repeatedly placed before me rather than overlook it, like we humans are prone to do. I audibly challenged myself to see what is mine, and everyone else’s, with Godly eyes, the way the scriptures tell us that God looked over his creations and saw they were good.

One day all the stresses of my life will be history, likely buried with me in the earth; all the stuff that brings me worry and takes up brain space and heart space. I wonder, if my angels were keeping a tally, how many strokes of human emotion would be added to the category of wonderment versus worry? 

I've trained myself to stop every morning and look over the beautiful setting outside my window. But, as soon as I turn and face the inside, my vision blurs. There's a lot in here. But it's not all bad. In fact, there's excessive good in here! Today's challenge: Look over the workings of joy, the things my distorted self-definition have caused me, heretofore, to overlook.