Take a look around now
Change the direction
Adjust the tuning
Try a new translation
Don’t look at your man in the same old way
Take a new picture
Just because you don’t see shooting stars
Doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect
Can’t you see…

Don’t look at yourself in the same old way
Take another picture
Shoot the stars off in your own backyard
Don’t look any further
And you will see
It’s the stuff that dreams are made of….

~Carly Simon

I love this song and it symbolized the new commitment I made to myself.  I always change the word “man” to “world” because that’s the message I am looking for.

I decided it would be a fun project to have a camera handy in the car when I’m out and about and it’s nice enough to drive with the top down.  Last spring, I got a red Pontiac G6 hard-top convertible and the coolest thing I noticed was how the world changed when there was no roof in the way.

The first time I noticed it, I was at a stoplight waiting for the light to turn green.  I heard a bird above my head and thought it sounded awfully loud, forgetting that there was nothing between myself and the bird.  I looked up and felt so close to this bird and realized how much we miss as we go through life, whether we are in a car or not.  I was also quite grateful that he didn’t need to go to the bathroom at that moment.

Wednesday was my first day with the top down and I reveled in the beauty of the clouds just above my head as I waited for my daughter after school.  Thursday, I was in Maple Grove at a stoplight and looked up and noticed the street lights above my head.  It wasn’t necessarily anything special but it was different than other streetlights I’d seen.  They were square in shape and had the number “25” on both sides for some reason.  I wondered what the “25” was all about.

But the true reward was this.  I took the picture, contemplated for a moment and then happened to glance in my rear view mirror just in time to see the guy behind leaning forward in his seat so he could see out his windshield and he was look up and all around trying to figure out what I was taking a picture of; as if it needed to be some earth-shattering experience instead of a simple pleasure of seeing the world in a new way.

I’m sure he was completely stumped and that’s ok.  It gave me great pleasure to realize that, in doing something differently, I gave someone else permission to look up and see the world in a whole new direction – a direction he would have missed otherwise.  I will always be curious about what he thought and my hope is that he continues to look up in wonder and see what he might be missing.  I hope you’ll do the same.