Moments of Grace

Do you ever have those moments where Mother Nature catches you by surprise? Those moments where the world seems to stop and you have no choice but to enjoy the peace and the beauty contained in one moment?

That was what started me on my journey to writing Mist on the Meadow.  I was driving to work one cold winter day and passed a meadow when a stag stepped out of the woods. He paused, and I could see his breath in the air. He was beautiful, the moment was perfect. You can never get those moments back. But how do you write a story about one moment? And so I began to gather moments. Originally, there were going to be several different types of these moments in the story, until I settled on just that one, magic moment.

Some of the scenes that have touched me:

A buck emerging from the woods, his breath steaming in the crisp winter air.

The first snowfall over a ridge of pine trees.

Sunbeans filtering through the trees.

Mist/fog over the moor.

Clouds banking over the mountaintops.
The sea lapping against the beach.

Snow falling, a bonfire on the common, the silence was so crystal clear, then out of the darkness came a horse drawn sleigh and all you could hear was the clopping of their hooves and the ringing of the bells on their harnesses (one of my friends lent me that one). 

The moments sneak up on you, unexpected, until you find yourself staring off into space and contemplating the magnificence that is contained in the span of a few seconds. Often I will pick one of these memories out on a particularly stressful day, and it reminds me what a small part of the universe I am, and the greatness of the world around me.

Have you encountered a moment of grace? A few seconds when God opens a window to show you something beautiful in the world around you that you might normally take for granted?