Friday, yesterday began with frost on the windshield.  After all it is still early January.  The weather forecast for the day held promise of temperature in the 40s, with 50s expected today.  This was delivered on the late evening news with much fanfare of graphical display and expression of animated glee by the attractive female “meteorologist.”  I remember when the next day’s weather report was a reliably mundane tail-end of a news cast.

I began my day anticipating a steady elevation into a spring-like mood.  Before driving to the office on a whim a decided to stop in at the Roadster Shop for a look around the showroom.  After all what is more spring-like to a gear head than a street rod ?  A 1970 Camaro was parked at the rear of the large room, that I had not noticed before.  I took a few photographs feeling the excitement rise, my admiration for the engineering and beauty of the car.  This was “just a car” as a 24 carat diamond ring is “just a ring.”  I’ll write about the Split-Second Camaro with more photos tomorrow.

Nothing is just what it appears to be.  There is more, a lot more which may or may not come to light, depending on the circumstances, a change in our angle of view.  Things are revealed and things are concealed,–it pays to be thoughtful, to resist the impulse to “jump” to a conclusion.  Jumping always increases the likelihood that one is lost, tumbling over the precipice of someone else’s contrived conclusion.  I have social media in mind with its rapid fire seductive visuals.  Mindfulness, to notice things, to recognize context,–is crucial to living well.

I dropped by EPILOGUE Gallery in Long Grove while on my lunch break.  The business features works of art, objects of craft tastefully displayed so that any visit leaves me touched by something of beauty that I have seen.   Or perhaps there’s a meaningful conversation shared with one of the individuals who work there.

On Friday the entry door was open.  The mild outside temperature, and the afternoon winter sun streamed light into the front room.  After a few minutes admiring some of the displayed photography I turned, looking in direction of the open door.  A display of hanging sun-catchers, caught  the light, and blazed with almost divine fire.  These photos do not do justice to the appearance of the small objects.  There is something special about winter light.  Maybe the season of cold lends a purity to the light?  Maybe we know more deeply, more surely than at any other time of year that,–light is life.

So much within a single day of life.  Some experiences are routinely neutral, a few are pleasant, and some unpleasant.  As Forest Gump once said,

“You never know what you are going to get in a box of chocolates.”

The day concluded with a visit to Emil’s Sports Bar in Mundelein for pizza.  The room was cozy, with an ancient buzz that has continued from the time of our ancestors at public eating and drinking places…  I am sure the Romans must have had such places along the roads that connected their great empire, places for fellowship and sustenance.  I was in the company of three people that I greatly respect and we enjoyed a better than average sausage pizza.

And so it goes.