Beautiful Things

"Mom!" she shouted, "Come look at your table!"
       Table didn't seem to fit the alarm in her voice, but I sped up my walk to observe what she was looking at. Indeed, the umbrella on my large patio table had been pushed over by the wind, resulting in a million tiny pieces of broken glass top.
       I think she was waiting for my rant. Or even a bit of the same alarm she had used, but I was transfixed by the sun shining across the tiny little pieces. I was mesmerized by the patterns it had created. And what I said to my daughter was,
"Isn't that beautiful?"
She gave me one of those looks, the ones I've established that someday she will remove my words from her neat little mind file and present them as evidence gifts to her shrink, and said, "Mom, you think everything is beautiful."

She's right, I do.
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       If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then all anyone need do, is open their eyes wide. It's easy to find beauty in general, the sunrise and sunset, the appealing allure of a beautiful woman, a flower, a popular piece of art, our children's smiles, a river placed against natures backdrop.......all things I can count on, there's comfort in the dependency of the ordinary.

       There are so many things I see beauty in. A fires flames, falls graceful outdoor coloring contest, the disorderly mess in one of my daughters room and the organized tidiness of the other. The artwork on my walls and the thousands of leaves now gracing my yard. The beauty of a black and white photo and a single written sentence of another persons words. Beauty is around me and in me, on my walls and in broken tables. I only need glance 5 feet in front of me to discover something that satisfies my mind and eyes.

       While I marvel at the things I can see within my vision that are beautiful, it is the things I cannot touch, nor hold, or explain, that delight me the most. I cannot see an idea, yet I find it full of extraordinary beauty. I cannot touch it, nor hold it or place it in a box or hang it on my wall, but I find the very notion of idea's glorious. I imagine my idea ofbeauty is wholly defined by my own motivations and experience. My individual idea's that are sculpted by what has inspired me are mine and mine alone. I see beauty in those possibilities.

       Feelings can be beautiful. A man holding my hand while we walk down the street is something I've come to love and regard as the beauty of connection. Having a man gather me up in their arms when we are falling asleep is one of the most beautiful feelings in the world, to me. A feeling of both comfort and love combined is more beautiful then any painting I could own.

       The beauty in people astounds me above all other things. When I read of a tragedy or witness bad things happen to those I know, I bite my lower lip and wait. For in negativeness, and ugliness, beauty has a way of revealing itself. People come together and show the beauty of compassion. People band together and show how generosity can transform need into beautiful. Beauty always trumps ugly. Beauty tempers chaos. The way I see it, people find the way to beauty in all things, whether they realize it or not. You only need to look at any ugly in this world to see people come together at their best. This trait in humanity is divine beauty.

       I wish for myself, that a time will never come that I take for granted the beauty in all things. My grandmothers voice, my daughters everything, a handwritten letter, the feeling of rain on my face or a tear down my cheek. The glorious beauty in a smile or asking the questions filled with 'why.'

       For I believe in each moment, in every day, I only have to observe, to notice the beautiful in everything. On the days when I have let ugly erode my thoughts, I take comfort that beauty will reveal itself once again. Beauty is but a word, a starting point of a definition I can design on my own. I like that about beauty, it's subjectiveness.

       Beautiful means much more to me then what just satisfies the eye. In my opinion, that is a beautiful thing all on it's own. So yes Shelby, I do find everything beautiful and I hope with time, you will understand what I mean..............