I love surprises! Big, little, inadvertent, mistaken, all of them. I even feel surprised and happy when my Amazon.com order is sitting on my doorstep. Sure, I know what it is, but I suspend that reality in favor of the fantasy that I will open the box and find an unexpected gift celebrating my wonderfulness. Any old surprise will do.

Yesterday I received a wonderful surprise under the stairwell at my daughter’s house. This area is a Harry Potterish “cupboard under the stairs” kind of space minus the door, the lock, and the dust-stomping Dudley. There are shelves loaded with books, along with some colorful and comfy cushions where one (albeit generally a little one) can sit and peruse. And peruse is exactly what I was doing when I found this faucet. Faucet? Here? I still don’t have the story. After all, why would one need to water the books? But it did get me thinking…

Sometimes all it takes to shake the doldrums is the unexpected…the unexpected anything. Who would have dreamed that I would find a faucet in the “cupboard under the stairs?” But I did…and this simple little waterlogged irony was just enough of a surprise to ignite my creativity and my awe. How often do I get stuck in the sameness of my home, my car, my neighborhood, my easy chair, my thoughts? What does it take to jolt me out of my comfort zone, or my stuck-zone? What does it take to spur myself on, to take some chances, to answer the same questions differently, to look at each moment with a fresh perspective…one that expects to be surprised?

A faucet, just a little unexpected faucet…