I have never seen a more perfect crystalline, turquoise sky like the one I saw this morning.

It was just before 6 o’clock and, as I shuffled through the house to turn off the porch lights which had been standing guard all night, an azureous glow from the east caught my eye.

Neither a hint of fog nor a speck of haze was visible. It was as though even the sun’s golden warmth decided to stay in bed a while longer to behold the magic of the sky. It was perfection. I tucked it into my memory and got on with the day.

Throughout the afternoon, my thoughts drifted to the movie Under the Tuscan Sun that I had seen the weekend before. One of my favorite scenes comes at the end of the film when recently-divorced Frances realizes that all of her wishes for her newly purchased villa have come true.

Prior to this, however, she shares a heartbroken moment mid-movie with her Italian real estate agent. As she speaks to him and wonders aloud why she bought such a large house for a life she doesn’t have, he prods her, “Why did you do it then?” Her reply is, “…because I still want things. I want a wedding in this house, and I want a family in this house.”

At the end of the movie, she looks out over her beautiful grounds where a young couple has just married. They’re in the middle of their reception, and the joy is palpable. Then her eyes fall upon her friend and her newborn baby. She realizes she has gotten both wishes: a wedding and a family.

In the past six months, there have been things that I’ve tried to make happen in my work life. I’ve hoped, prayed and focused on them with all my might, but they haven’t come to pass. I truly believe everything happens for a reason, so I did my best to not fret over their absence.

Today I realized that some side projects I’ve been working on are exactly the things I’d tried to make happen months ago in my 9-to-5 world. Without going into too much detail about them, I will say that the moment of clarity when I realized just this afternoon that I what I asked for had ultimately come my way was one of those beautiful, epiphanic occasions.

Tonight I am thankful for the morning sky’s clarity which made me take pause, and for the clarity which continued through my day, ultimately finding its way into my thoughts and personal reflections. We may not get exactly what we’ve asked for, but chances are, if we stay patient and remember to look around every now and then, we realize we’ve gotten something even better in the long run.