I rarely went to Hill Country Water Gardens because it was so far away. Unfortunately, now it only takes 10 minutes to arrive in their parking lot.

They open at 11:00 am on Sunday’s and that’s my favorite time to go. My truck pulls into the lot a few minutes before they officially open, but they let me in anyway. I was there before Thanksgiving and they already had a section of Christmas on display. That’s when I spotted the little rusted, wagon filled with giant gold stars made of metal and it was love at first sight.

They were not cheap, so I paused to weigh out how much I really loved them. They had plenty at the time, so I left without one and told myself to return after Thanksgiving to see what was left. There were two sizes, big and giant, so I couldn’t decide which size was right to hang outside above my front door.

As far back as I recall, there’s always been a draw toward the north star and for me it holds significant meaning especially the month of December. Over the weekend I sat down to change my phone’s screensaver to something Christmassy which I do every year and this one really caught my eye, so I downloaded it.

It also reminded me that it was time to go check on the gold star selection at HCWG, so Sunday morning I went and walked straight to where the wagon of stars had been, but it was almost empty. It’s times like this that God loves to show His sense of humor because there were two stars laying there for sale, but one of each size!!!

The struggle commenced between the old Barb and the Barb of today. I heard, “Go big, or go home”, as I reached to pull the giant gold star from the wagon, but the hook used to hang it with got stuck on the rim of the wagon almost jerking it out of my hand. I paid close attention as I unhooked it and held the star up in the air, trying to decide. Then my heart whispered, “Do you really want over the top big, or just the right size?”

I went with the smaller one, even though it’s still big, but I wrestled with that decision all the way to the checkout. Once home I realized I’d made the right choice because the larger one would have been too big for the space it would hang. I’m learning that the longer we’re here the more mindful we become of how delicate life really is and as we age we find peace in following our one true north.