collage, Ben, fall leaves,Canon Rebel XTI

Last night I noticed that the sidewalks of my entire neighborhood were lined with light. Someone had placed paper lunch bags (with tea lights inside) all along the sidewalks. Each bag was about a foot away from the next so it created the most beautiful and arresting visual… I’ve never been much for Christmas, but this act of beauty on the part of my neighbors delighted me into my first real moment of holiday reverie.

As I walked with Ben this morning I saw a man picking all of the bags up in a red wagon. “Are you the one who put all of these out?” I asked. “Just my block,” he explained. He said that it had all started on one tiny street (appropriately named “Holly”) and every year the idea spread. “Pretty soon all of Berkeley will look like this!” he smiled.

It reminded me that there was just one person who decided to do this on Christmas years ago… and now the entire neighborhood is filled with light.

May we all take that opportunity, at least once in life, to be that one person that fills the whole world with light.

Wishing you all the happiest of days…