I knew the porch light was dirty, but not that dirty!  And so instead of the clear pictures of flame-shaped light bulbs that I had envisioned, I ended up with blurred bulbs and dirty glass.  It kind of reminds me of the way we see the world sometimes.  It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day and taking care of the dirt that seems to be flung directly in our face.  But in the process of focusing so much energy on ourselves, the way we see the world is changed.  Instead of seeing others clearly, we only see them through the dirty glass of our own problems.  I am sure we all miss many opportunities to celebrate the world because we are just too busy to clean the glass. 

And yes, for those of you who were concerned, I did clean the porch light . . . or at least the part that I was taking pictures through.