Finding Beauty

" A thing of beauty needs no comparison, only an eye to behold it"
                                        ~ Valerie Monroe

It seems that  most days I am on a schedule... from the time I get up, while at work, there is a to-do list running through my head and forever growing longer.  As I go to work, I am preparing for the day;  there is always a huge list forming...as well as errands I need to run later, or calls I need to make; as I leave work, I am thinking about what I need to accomplish at home.  As I left my student's house this afternoon around sunset, I noticed how beautiful the sky was.  I am a sucker for a beautiful sunset. It snapped me out of the to-do list running through my head and made me sit up and pay attention. I was going to pull over and take a photo, but I was in town, there were electric lines and cars and buildings....so I just went home.

  I rarely see a beautiful sunset at my house and I am so envious of the photo's of sunsets that I see people have taken.  I had my camera with me, so I decided to stop by the pond at the end of the road and take a couple of photo's. I love this pond.  I just love water and being by the water.  I could see some of the sunset there...it wasn't quite as brilliant as I had seen it in town, and as I headed in the direction of my house, I couldn't see it at all.  But here at the pond, I could see bits of it beyond the trees.  I just stood there for a moment, looking at this beautiful spot.  It was really beautiful here... it may not have been the sunset that I had seen down the road...but in it's own way...it was just as breathtaking.

Do you ever look at people...and sometimes just see the beauty in them?  I am so weird like that.  Sometimes out of nowhere, I just can't hear what someone is saying...because I just see all their beauty shining through.  At those moments, I am just taken aback at how beautiful people can be....and that there isn't one that is more beautiful than another, each one has their own special brand...that can not be surpassed or compared to anyone else.  I believe in the beauty in people...and despite the fact that we have been hearing about so much evil in the world lately...I believe in the good in people.

I try to make it a conscious decision...to look for the beauty, look for the good....in people, in situations, in places.  It seems that so many are just focusing on the bad and ugly....and let the beauty that is all around us pass by.  I have decided that life is too precious and short to live that way. So I am trying to look for the beauty.  I think when you find the beauty...it changes your outlook.  When you notice it, look for it...then that is what you see and it changes the way you look at people, places, events and it changes how you think about them.  

So tomorrow...and the day after that...I will try not to get so caught up in all the little details...which some day will be so unimportant, and I will look for the beauty.  I will find it and be amazed that it was there all along, I just didn't notice.  I will try to find it wherever I can.  I know there will still be those times...where it catches me unaware...and leaves me breathless.