We live in a great old 1920s building in the heart of Nashville. While new condos are popping up all around us, our sturdy brick building with its single pane windows, plaster walls, dripping faucets, and creaky floors is almost like a piece of the way city living should be.
Part of the building’s appeal is that, unlike a lot of new construction, the original builders incorporated the surrounding grounds into the building’s design. Just below our fifth story windows you can see the leafy green trees of spring and the colors of fall. It’s a great spot.
After a trip to the mall on Sunday, where we wound our way through plastic Santas, oversize bows, and gaudy lights, returning home to our building was a breath of fresh air. Our building has a simple façade.
However, when we pulled into the drive that day my daughter said, “Mom- look! Someone decorated the trees for Christmas!” I assumed that a new neighbor had strung lights on the bushes- but what Caroline saw was the holly berries that had appeared in the last few weeks on the trees outside the front doors.
“Who decorated the bushes?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But they look beautiful, don’t they?”
She agreed. As we walked inside I thought about the simple decorations all around us that happen naturally as the seasons change. We don’t need a 14-foot Santa to remind us that it is Christmas- nature reminds us in its own time, and when the time is right.
Next time you’re feeling pressured to get those decorations up, look outside. Put aside the wooden Santa and take a glance at how well-decorated nature is. The evergreens look greener, the berries have a beautiful bright red, and the weather outside is beginning to prepare itself for that first snow. It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.
