Sitting on the bench on the patio deck, I looked down to my smartphone screen and saw truth.

The week had been bumpy.  A semifinalist for three different jobs conducting national searches, and I was told by all three within 48 hours of each other that I would not be advancing to the finalist stage.  Time spent in manual labor in the back yard seemed like a good prescription for the day.  It was on a break from bundling up branches that truth appeared on my phone.

I sat on the bench to catch my breath and release my thoughts.  I pulled out my phone, glanced at the screen – a habit I should kick.  Something caught my eye, so I changed my focus from the wording I was reading to the reflection on the screen.  There was a powerful oak bough arching across the screen’s width, with silhouetted leaves creating a pattern that looked like tiny chocolate chip morsels scattered on a blue field.  In some ways, it reminded of Oriental art.  It wasn’t a reflection; it was truth.  Truth is, no matter what is going on in life, there is beauty.

I smiled, put away the phone (which I should do more often), and leaned back to look at the arching limbs, flying birds and variations of leaves at this pre-Spring time; I listened to the leaves moved by the wind, the kids a few yards over and the engine of the power washer working next door.  Life goes on; soak it in.

In the pause to soak in the moment, I noticed a few places in the yard that needed my attention, but a bit more work is sure better than time with the phone, and keeps one’s head straight about the ups and downs of life.