Dear Reader:

It worked… light cascading from the old water can to the grass like twinkling stars tumbling over a water fall! 🎉

Last week, a friend from high school, Jane Taylor Freeman, sent me an idea for my garden. It was a photo of a watering can on a fence with cascading lights falling out of it like water pouring from the can. I loved that idea!

So the other day, while at Home Depot, I wandered into the solar lights section and found what I thought looked like the same lighting effect. I had two old watering cans…Vickie helped me pick one and the location where it could best be seen from the deck. We were a little unsure if the one long string of copper wire (repeatedly wound around the spout of the water can) would give the same illusion…it did!

I had to run pick up some prescriptions Thursday night at CVS and it was dark when I got home. I tip-toed out on the deck and peeked through the inky blackness into the garden…and there it was…looking just like (or very close to) Jane’s picture. Happiness is! It is amazing the (title) picture even ‘took’ with me all aglow with excitement!

Doesn’t it feel good to glow…really glow! When I looked at Tommy and Kaitlyn smiling and laughing through the wedding ceremony…the glow was obvious to all. It is just not a glowing expression…it is a glowing feeling. It is feeling loved and wanted. Isn’t that the one common denominator that everyone desires and needs here on earth?

I love being around upbeat people who glow with laughter, smiles, and compassion…I have been blessed to have friends who do just that…share their light. Everyone’s light is uniquely their own…and it shines in various ways.

In one uplifting article, titled “Finding the Ruby Shoes” Erin Parker (Huffington Post) reminded us of the (Wizard of Oz) Good Witch Glinda’s prompt to Dorothy…“that we need only look inside ourselves to find what we need.”

Parker agreed with that assessment BUT…it, also, helps for someone else or even others to point it out to us also. Perhaps it is the teacher who points out to a student that they had a natural inclination towards writing, creativity, art,  music, math, science, history, cooking, or athletics…and for the first time the student begins to believe that perhaps he/she does.

Sometimes, Parker thought, we need someone to not only push the “Ruby Slippers” at us… but make us try them on too. It is that special someone who shares their light with another, making sure the spark is strong before leaving, who never really leaves our heart.