It's A Sign

Although I have much to be thankful for, 2009 truly kicked me to the curb multiple times and I was glad to see it finally come to an end.

Aside from the disastrous economy, our hideously expensive sewer condom and our currently sinking pool and deck, it was a year filled with illness, surgery, hospitals, and way too many funerals.

More times than I can count last year, I looked up to the smog-filled Los Angeles skies and asked out loud-- "When will it end?". Each time, within days, it seemed like yet another shoe dropped and something else went wrong.

So as the ball dropped over New York's Times Square and the last seconds of 2009 click away, I reluctantly looked to the skies, at the beautiful Blue Moon shining bright, and asked one more time for the craziness of '09 to lift and let the skies smile again.

The next morning, blue skies were delivered but they usually are on New Year's Day-- Just in time for the Pasadena Rose Parade-- So all the folks freezing back East can see sunny Southern California and decide to move here. But this time something was different.

Our back yard overlooks a big golf course. We don't have any back yard neighbors-- just a lot of grass and trees. And since our house sits on a hill, we look down to the golf course and straight out into the "green part" of the trees. We can't actually see any tree trunks from inside the house.

After I dragged myself out of bed January 1st and away for the second showing of the Parade, I walked into our living room and stared straight out the picture window and into the back yard. The view was unusually grand! The mountains and the famous Hollywood sign were in all their glory.

Maybe 2010 would be different.

As I stood taking in the view, I thought about the Rose Parade and the perfect, crystal clear, blue skies that only grace our presence a handful of days per year, when my Beloved husband walked in and admired the great view too. So did a few other family members that morning. All of us paused at the clarity of the skies, the colors of the mountains and the prominence of the Hollywood Sign.

But never once did any of us remember that we had not been able to actually SEE the Hollywood sign from our living room before! (We could see the sign from other parts of the house and yard, but never the living room.)

Seriously!

It took a few hours before Beloved went upstairs to his office and looked out the window-- Which is when he saw the huge tree, that used to block our view, had fallen over. Sometime between 6pm New Year's Eve and noon on New Year's Day, the tree-- which was a huge, thick pine that was growing at a 45 degree angle and taking up a lot of space-- fell over.

Don't get me wrong, I love trees and have planted more than my share, but this particular tree's time had, apparently, come-- or should I say gone. There was no storm, no lightening, no wind and the tree did not appear to be diseased. The tree was on the golf course property, it did not hurt anyone or damage anything. It just fell over..... and out of sight-- revealing a spectacular view from our living room that looks like this.....

The view in the middle-- between the two big trees-- That's where the tree used to be! It literally was a wall of green.

Now it's wide open! The white "line" you see on the dark mountain toward the right is the Hollywood sign.

So I'm taking the "sign" as a sign-- a very good sign-- at the start of 2010, that the skies are clearing and a new day has dawned-- a kinder, gentler, healthier day and hopefully year.

Do you believe in "signs"?

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna

Photo Credit: Joanna Jenkins