# 93 ZIRCONS, DIAMONDS, PRECIOUS GEMS

I looked out my window this morning in a moment of quiet meditation. All is the same, ever the same. This morning there is the same blanket of snow that we have had for several weeks now. There has been no fresh fall of flakes and only the heavy frost on the trees and the calendar near the window allow me to keep the January faith. The weather is as dull and repetitious as everyday life.

No doubt about it, this kind of weather is a drag. But I guess the old saying, ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ is true because the unchanging weather has become too familiar. Each day when I look out the window I expect dreariness. But then this morning while looking I contemplated how the ground glimmered with silvery diamonds in mass profusion after the last snowfall. How impressed I was with the beauty of the fresh snow. But since then the sparkle has subsided. On New Year’s Day my once delightful diamond collection had considerably dulled. The lawn looked more like it was strewn with zircons that had been dipped too frequently in dishwater.

But wait, this morning, there is something new on my lawn. Something new and thrilling even though there has been no change in the weather. There are no diamonds. The diamonds are gone, but look. I now have a collection of precious gems. Today, when the sun came out, the ice prisms on the lawn caught those rays of sun and right now they are sparkling in mass profusion with brilliant colors of crimson, magenta, aquamarine, amber, and violet. I am quite pleased. Indeed, I am.

It seems to me, that in a last ditch effort to live up to their namesake of ‘being forever’, my snowflake-diamonds have embraced each familiar other so tightly with their feathery snowflake arms through mid-day warmth and the cool of the night, that the ground is now covered with solidified prisms of ice.

So why this bit of fantasy? I just thought this small rant might compel all of us to find value in what we have by looking at the same-old, same-old in a different light. Or perhaps it might compel us to give more hugs to those with whom we are familiar. Seemed to me like a good way to start a New Year.