Visible Sunbeams

I spent my day on a sixth grade field trip to visit Carl Sandburg's house in Flat Rock, NC. Walking into that house and being hit with one of my most favorite smells in the world was intoxicating. Old book smell. Don't you just love it? The Sandburgs had over 17,000 books in this country home nestled in one of my most favorite places in the world, the North Carolina mountains. 

We couldn't have ordered better weather for it so, other than the one little nosebleed and one goat-sneeze-in-the-face out of my group of fourteen, I'd say it was one of the more successful field trips I've attended (there have been some doozies). And I even managed to get this sort-of-magical shot of a goat with my iPhone. 

She is the descendant of some mighty fine goats since Mrs. Sandburg, it turns out, was quite the goat connoisseur. I've always found visible sunbeams sort of magical and the way this photo makes it seem as though they are following this little white goat around just makes me smile.  

The sun was in my eyes when I took this so I was pleasantly surprised when I was able to get a good look at it and knew it was the perfect example of what I meant by "everyday magic".   I'm discovering more and more that there really are so many of these little bits of joy in every single day just begging for us to step up and take notice of them. 

Carl Sandburg himself wrote, "Let a joy keep you. Reach out your hands and take it when it runs by..."

Giving it my best shot,