Maxwell House moments

Those holiday Maxwell House coffee commercials get me every time.  Like when the big brother returns from West Africa, and his sister is up early to welcome him home on Christmas Eve.  Or when the daughter sips her morning coffee to surprise her dad with her engagement only to discover her fiancee asked for his permission previously.  Year after year, season after season, I still get overwhelmed.  Ever since I was a little girl.  Call me super sensitive or emotional.  A good friend of mine, R., once shared, that just means we have so much love inside and around us that it constantly flows out of us . . . Maxwell House moment by moment. 


2011 has begun. I'm sitting at the kitchen table looking out the window as the new year's drizzle washes away the blizzard mounds in the driveway along with all of last year's challenges and negative energies.  As I sip my coffee (french-pressed discount 8 O'Clock beans, not Maxwell House) and listen to Soundscapes' instrumental Winter Child, I sit in front of my laptop in simple gratitude for what has been and what is to come. 


Many times this holiday season, my eyes have welled up, usually in the car -- overcome by memories of celebrations past with my dad, without my dad and festivities to come . . . without my dad.  They are passing moments, not more than a minute or two.  They are also very present moments as I take pause and breathe in all that is and all whom I experience now in my life.


Whenever those Maxwell House moments catch me off guard, I've actually stumbled upon life's treasures. 

Treasure

moment by moment

each poignant flashback or promise

a newly discovered jewel

kept close to my heart

precious perfection