Finding Beauty in Everyday Life
Finding the Beauty of the Day
The days right now are gray, and frankly, life seems distressing and chaotic. It is too easy to look at the world and miss the beauty and wonder we still have available at our fingertips. Finding beauty in everyday life means that we still have ways to nourish ourselves and heal distress. There are still many lovely things all around us, in the small things, in nature, and in humans, that are preserved as a monument to the good of humanity.
It is a gift to see joy. If you bestow it to your children, it is a gift that will benefit them their whole life; if you are an adult, it is an anchor of hope. If you are a creator, it is a way to change the world.
When I look at these lovely, creative things that people can do, I am reminded that no politician, no war, no political unrest can destroy our ability to create. There is still hope and creation ahead of us.
This is why art, creation, and hope must be protected; it is a symbol of what is good in humanity, a symbol of what elevates us and makes us better than we were before.
One of my favorite poems is Emily Dickinson’s poem called “Hope.” It lives, doesn’t ask for anything, just a small bit of fierce life that years and just “is”.
Birds are this hope for me, a whole universe above us filled with the fierceness of existence. There is nothing more filled with life than a flock of sparrows, small, fierce, and utterly urgent. They, of course, are just not the only birds up and busy early; they just are my favorite. In the morning, when I walk my dog, that is when I pause and listen, so many little busy birds.
It is early spring, and the quiet of winter is being pushed out; a whole riot of birds calling are there for the early riser.
We have a little family of doves living in the bush right by our front door. I thought, actually, we had lost them, as just a few days ago, a red-tailed hawk dived into the bush and made away with one of the babies. I know that it is the circle of life, but I was still sad.
Yesterday I saw them, and they watch me quietly as I go in and out. We are tied; hope and perseverance are the reward for those who keep on.
