For the ones who fill my life with contentment

Wealthy people pay millions for a view that I see from my backyard. In a 180 degree panorama, I can see 100 miles in the distance over 3 ridges of mountains. The vantage point is from one of the highest hillsides in the whole area, so it overlooks a valley with a lake snaking through it. In the mornings, fog often shrouds the valley. At dusk the ridges on the far side of the lake are blue with a haze hiding their distant details. At night, lights twinkle showing where houses dot the shore. Part of the lake in my view snakes a course where small grass peninsulas jet out into the lake. The other part of the lake splashes against sheer cliff walls of 50 feet or more. All of this in my 180 degree view from my backyard.

The average house on the far side of lake on top of the cliffs, nestled among the thick cedar woods, cost 1.5 million dollars, the houses above the grass bars about 500,000. Every house is beautiful and ostentatious. In the summer, those people often walk down their cliff steps to their boats sitting in the wet locks and dock below their houses.

I am reminded that even though I do not have the millions of dollars of my southlake friends, I have the million-dollar view that their money can't buy. My backyard is overlooking theirs. Very few views in the area rival the one I have day in and day out. Even the name of the road running to the side of my backyard bears my last name.

I am struck and awe-struck that my investment for such a view is minimal. If I spent everyday for the rest of my life mulling over life as it happens while taking in the view from my backyard, I would certainly be more grateful, happier, and less focused on what comes to me as a result of the work of my own hands. When the sun sets and turns the lake the same color as the orange skies above and the blue peaks of the far ridges begin fading to black with the ensuing darkness, when the green cedar woods waft their sweet bark aroma across the entire valley and up the hillsides, then I know that the Maker of this truly ostentatious beauty has given me the gift of contentment.

When I leave my backyard this time perhaps this happier, more content, more grateful state can stay with me a little longer and be passed to those who fill my life and cross my path.