February 16

After January brought us some degree of relief from our sustained drought, February has been a bit of a dud to date: we haven't seen a single drop of rain. It's been so dry, in fact, that as I drove the kiddos to swimming tonight, I lamented the gray, hazy air that partially obscured the hills in the distance. But when I turned my head in the other direction, I saw this:

With so much ugliness --both literal and figurative-- polluting the world these days, it's easy to wind up discouraged. But it's just as easy to remember that sometimes, I merely need to avert my gaze a bit to see something beautiful and encouraging. And to me, that's good news.