On Beauty

a view of our crick

Some days, you find yourself surrounded by beauty.  Some days, at the same place, you really have to look hard to find the beauty in your surroundings. 

There are warm spring mornings that welcome you into their arms, inviting you to glory in the light.  There are crystalline winter nights--so very cold, but so very clear--that you can see every star in the heavens.  There are summer days spent watching the light play through the leaves while you have your fishing pole in the water . . .and you just got a bite.  There are autumn days when the colors in the trees remind you of the color of your husband's eyes, or the colors of a rose.

Then there are days when the world kicks you in the teeth.  Days when you just can't seem to say or do anything right.  Days when something hits you again and again and again.  Days that start out like today with not enough sleep, a 2 hour nosebleed, and other assorted problems and just goes downhill from there.  Sometimes I feel like I'm constantly battling uphill.  That's not a good thing, especially with my track record of falling up stairs.  Sometimes it just feels like I ought to give up.  But, thanks to my good German genes, great family, and great friends, I won't.  I CAN'T.

Maybe it's my artist dad, or my poet mom.  Maybe it's my husband, or my kids, or my close friends.  Somehow, beauty always shines through, even if I'm slow to notice it.  Looking at the play of light sparkling on Stewie's feathers.  Seeing the steam from the breaths of horses who are happy to see me.  Gazing up on that frozen night to see the universe wrapping around me.  Having my kids on my lap and getting to snuggle them and tell them how much I love them while their arms embrace me.  Seeing my solid, warm home that's held us safe.  Knowing that I have terrific friends and family, and picturing all of their faces.

Beauty is all around us.  I'm going to leave you with an excerpt from the Navajo Beauty Way prayer.  (borrowed from beautywalk.wordpress.com)

Today may I walk out in beauty.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty above me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty around me, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.

May you walk surrounded in beauty too, and may you be fortunate enough to realize it.  May each of your days be more beautiful than the last.