Life is full of Special Moments, if you will only open your eyes and notice.  It’s all in how you look at things.  Just this past week, I was in my computer room,  writing a post for this blog.  When I write, I am pretty much oblivious to most of what’s going on around me, so I didn’t notice when Kikyo came in, on little cat feet.  When I was done writing, I looked down, and saw that she had been with me for quite a while.

She was just sitting there, in her “legless position”, waiting for me to be done, and pick her up for a nuzzle (which I promptly did, after taking her picture).

Yesterday afternoon, Hubby and I got in the car, and took a drive over the Cascade Mountains to our favorite place, the “Bavarian Village” of Leavenworth.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day, with sunny skies and mild temperatures.  This year has been a very good one for snow in the mountains, with over 33 feet of snow on both our major mountain passes heralding a spring and summer with ample water available for people on both sides of the Cascades.  It is trips like these that make me very thankful for my iPhone XR with its camera.  I captured some very special moments, with my phone while the car was moving!  The first one is on the West side of the Cascades.  This is Mount Index.

Once we crossed the Cascades, there was still snow on the ground, though the roads were clear.  Just before you reach the town of Leavenworth, you drive through the spectacular Tumwater Canyon beside the Wenatchee River.  It was about 4:30PM when we got there.

The river looks so peaceful, and the hills still are covered with a thin blanket of snow.  This is a very good thing, since the Leavenworth area and Chelan County are subject to forest fires when the weather gets warmer.  The longer that snow sticks around, the better for the town.

Our trip to Israel in 2007 was special in its entirety, but there were still some things that were extra-special.  I took a walk by myself through the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City.  It is awe-inspiring for an American, whose own country is only 250 years old or so, to walk through a city that has a history over 2,000 years old.  I specifically went to the Western (or Wailing) Wall, the last remnant of the Second Temple, which is sacred to my people, the Jews.

That’s my hand on the wall, proof that I was there.  You can see the cracks in the wall above my hand, stuffed with slips of paper on which people have written prayers, feeling that God is very near.  This Temple is in ruins, and this is the last of it.  But even so, there is life in these walls!  Look at all the plants growing there, on very little sustenance.

Special moments don’t require leaving home, if you pay attention to your surroundings.  One day in January, we arrived home just as the sun was setting.  The sky was just spectacular!

This photo is proof that what the camera sees is not what your eyes see.  The sky was really pink, but it looks orange here.

And I have to include this one last photo of a special moment, for me.  I think I was very lucky to be able to take this tiny bird’s picture just at the right moment when he looked up from eating the suet from our backyard feeder.

He’s a Bewick’s Wren, and he has been coming to our yard all winter.  We had never seen him before.

So, just look around, and the special moments will appear.

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