A chilly winter morning can turn even an ordinary window pane into an abstract work of art.

Look for the beauty hidden all around us.

Nana’s simplest songs have the power to change the world.

It was a cold, grey evening as I eagerly tromped down the trail towards home.

The hike had not turned out as planned.

Instead of a joyous, sunlit day amongst pines covered with fresh-fallen snow, it had turned into a dreary trudge through cloudy silence and damp cold.

But as I approached the forest’s edge, a lone chickadee began its lilting tune.

I couldn’t catch a glimpse of this tiny musician hidden within the snow-covered trees, but its bright song pierced the chill and overcame the drab surroundings.

In that moment, this thumb-sized little bird’s song changed my memory of the entire day.

Instead of the day where I froze my fingers and toes hiking along a dreary, grey trail – it was transformed into the day when a cheerful chickadee gave me a gift of song at dusk.

Simple songs can change the world.

We seek clarity and focus as a new year dawns.

Unfortunately we’re all too often presented with the same blurry outlines and blowing winds that the previous year ended on.

Our challenge is to not become too discouraged about this lack of instant clarity – and to instead use the coming of a new year as a chance to stop, catch our breath, and take a closer look at our surroundings for the bits of our world that do come into focus, once we take the time to look.

Even swirling snow clouds part long enough to catch an occasional glimpse of the path ahead.