Beauty Is All Around You—Don’t Miss It

Beauty is all around you. Don’t miss it.

Yoga class this morning, and this was the instructor’s instruction to us. It’s something I know. Something (I think) I practice. And something I can stand to be reminded of again and again and again.

And again.

There is so much pain and suffering in the world. There is so much to look at that is, or at least can be, upsetting. I could find reasons to be in pain and anguish when I look at the lives around me, and my own life, as well.

And there is so much beauty. It’s there for me to see, if I’ll just notice it.

It doesn’t mean the awful isn’t awful. It doesn’t mean I’m slapping a smiley face on the things that hurt, and suck, and need to be changed. It doesn’t mean I’m not going to fight the good fights and change what I can—in myself, my life, and my world.

It just means that in the midst of that fight, in the midst of every day, I can stop and notice. And notice again. I can literally and figuratively smell the roses.

It’s the sun shining again after a storm. Laughter with my friends of decades, as we eat a fine dinner looking over the ocean, with fireworks exploding behind us. It’s running into a good friend whom I haven’t seen in too long, and having a few minutes at a high-school football game. It’s the horde of yellow birds I saw not once but twice today.

I can pay attention to all the wonder and splendor and glory and love that surrounds me. Or I can not. It is always a choice. It ‘s always my choice. It is always a choice I have to remember, and remember, and remember to make.

I can learn to notice beauty, or I can be caught up in pain and challenges. I can learn to notice beauty, or I can seethe with anger and resentment. I can learn to notice beauty, or I can (easily) find reasons to suffer. Or cause suffering.

Beauty is all around you. I breathed deep as the instructor offered us that thought. I breathe deep, and notice the sunshine and the birds—as I sit here and ponder that thought. It is a choice I want to always remember to make.

Beauty is all around you. Beauty is all around me. Don’t miss it.