"What?" I said.

"You should grab a photographer to go out & shoot the back of your car window," Joan said. "It's covered with all these stick figures and clouds and a sun. It's just great. I love it. It would be perfect for a story about summer traveling with kids... ."

I realized then that she was talking about the dirty back window of my little SUV that my daughter Kelly turned into her canvas. I had noticed...as I looked out the back window pulling out of the driveway that morning that someone had been drawing on the window, but...I never looked at it.

It took a friend -- with fresh eyes and a knack for noticing the special little things in life -- to remind me to open my eyes.

I never did find a photographer -- I shot this myself. It was the day of Pennsylvania's primary & I just couldn't bring myself to drag a photojournalist out there to shoot my back window on a day when so many more "important" things were happening.

But, then...really...what's more important than the real life stuff that's going on around us right now?

It really is those little every day gifts -- like car art and budding trees and flowering bulbs -- that make the world a more beautiful place ... when we stop and take notice.