I got a little surprise when I entered my fifteen year old son’s room last night . It was way past both of our bed times and he was in in his room still “working on homework” or so I thought. Upon walking into the room, I was greeted by a young man who was not doing his homework but sitting on his bed playing something on his phone…a common occurrence these days it seems. I took the phone away, as per house policy, as I shot some parting words about responsibility etc.

As I walked into my bedroom to call it a night, I glanced down at the phone as I put it on the table next to my bed. Fully anticipating a screen shot of one of the hand held games I was sure he was playing, I was taken aback to see that on the screen was this photo of icicles hanging off of the front of our house. 

I scrolled back and next in line was this photo of our dog Murphy at the edge of the pond as it was  snowing.

Then another one, which had obviously been edited. The aforementioned fifteen year old boy has always loved to take pictures and we have lost him in many a crowd when on family vacations as he stops to snap away while we are all walking away.

As I scrolled through his pictures I was struck by how he has been taking shots of the world around him…the beautiful world around him. 

The scenery in each photo was even more beautiful than I remembered it to be on that first heavy snow fall that we had this winter. It stuck to everything for it was a heavy one. One in which I remember being so thankful that it was not a large amount for that would have brought some of these beautiful branches down.

Yes, he is very blessed to have these snow covered vistas surrounding him but I feel that I am even more blessed that he is taking note of them.

After all…he is a fifteen year old male teenager…tough to sometimes get them to talk about what they are feeling or experiencing.

It warmed my heart that in his moments of silence with us…

 he is not immune to the beauty around him.

Now if he would only do his homework tomorrow that is due next week…

all would be right with the world.