I was driving home from my sister’s house this weekend which takes me over the George Washington Bridge and along the Cross Bronx Expressway. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of driving this stretch of roadway, allow me to describe it. I believe the essence can best be captured by saying that this is New York City’s armpit. It flows through some unattractive neighborhoods. There’s a ton of traffic complete with pan handlers in the spots where it slows down the most. There’s graffiti. There are potholes galore. It’s not a stretch I would drive if there were another reasonable alternative.

At one point during this stretch we went through a tunnel where they had built a building above the roadway. There were lots of lights and my four year-old in the backseat said, “pretty.” Just that. Pretty.

In Three Deep Breaths, a book I find to be absolutely brilliant, Tom Crum describes three breaths you can take to achieve greater inner peace. In the third breath you let go of judgment and breathe in mystery. For me mystery has two parts. There is the unknown that creates anxiety if we fear it and excitement if we do not hold that fear. There is also beauty that we take for granted if we don’t consciously choose to see it, explore it and soak it in.

My daughter saw that twinkling lights in the night time were pretty and in so doing reminded me to see more beauty in the world.