"The first thing, the last thing, start from where you
are."   Dale Pendell

I had copied this quote down on the top of a sheet of paper. It seems like one of those ridiculously simple statements that cause some people to say, "well,duh!" Yet, for whatever reason, I had jotted it down to remember…maybe for this day. At what other point might I start than where I am?

Yet, here we are at the beginning of another new calendar year. Many people have made a list of resolutions a mile long that really are planted in old soil, moldy thoughts, thirsty dreams.There is not a drive to start from ‘where you are’ just a push to rehash all the old stuff packed in our bags for years.

Perhaps I thought of this quote because the beginning…..where I am today….started out in such an amazing way. Driving my son to school, I was mesmerized by the light reflecting off the snow. Blue as blue could be…..blue snow.…making a bed for the jet black sticks of trees rising toward the burgeoning light. Then I saw it. First a sea shell pink gently washed across the pale blue horizon….a baby blanket of a sky. Before I could even take in that subtle beauty, brilliant yellow streaked out of those colors…how does that happen? Sunflower yellow gave way to blaze orange and then all the colors moved(without my being able to see the movement)and became a canvas that reached across the eastern horizon. I stopped. I took it all in, this gift of an unimaginable painting on the morning sky. Right where I was.

Gathering my wits I turned west, making my way toward my morning meeting. But, no….the beauty would not stop hounding me. That canvas of shining sky had the audacity to throw its light further and further until there it was….The Ruby City….Minneapolis’ glass skyscrapers reflecting the gift of the morning sunrise for all to see. Right where I was.

So I ask myself….I ask you…on a day so miraculous, how could we want to start any place else? The gift of this morning, the gift of this day. This is where we begin…bathed in art not of our own making, walking in a world filled with miracles yet to behold. Right where we are.

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth…and I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals."  Revelation 21:1-3