a better view

I told my mother the view from my bedroom window was too boring--no festivity, no decoration, only a huge evergreen. Let's put lights on that too, I told her.

Don't be silly, she said. Years ago we could place a star on top, but now it's grown to over twenty feet high. Impossible.


A week later, she's decorated a small section of it, just a small part I see through my bedroom window. Baubles hang from its branches and ribbons blow in the breeze.

It, and that simple act, make me smile.