Friday, April 9, 2010

Looking at Beauty

I was driving home this morning from taking my daughter to her grandparents where she meets the bus and really began to see the beauty around me. I have always prided myself if being able to stop and see nature around me. Sometimes though, I get so busy that I forget to really see the fragile and fleeting beauty that is all around me on a daily basis.

I love flowers. I always have. I have a very large flower garden and enjoy just going out and communing with God in my flower garden. I pray and sing as I pull weeds and just putter around out there alone. I always know that most of the time, everyone will leave me alone because they don't want me to put them to work. My kids can always find me because they just listen to where the singing is coming from. I usually sing old hymns like the ones I sang as a kid in church and I usually sing quite loudly.

I could never be Amish. I like the idea of saving so much money by not having an electric bill, cell phones and cars but I read somewhere that they do not sing for joy. No music, no instruments, and you can be kicked out if you sing a lot. I wouldn't last five minutes. I'm always singing something. Even when I was a little kid. One of my earliest memories is of me swinging on the swingset early in the morning as the sun was coming up singing some song I had learned the night before at church. When I was young, my dad was a music minister so I hung around during choir practice and listened to the music. I could usually sing every song they ever did and knew it by heart. If I couldn't pull up a song about a topic, I'd make one up. My sister said once that I could make up a song about a lid and a straw. Maybe I missed my calling, I should write jingles!

Part of me singing is because I think I am a joyful, happy person. I usually see the humorous, happy side of any situation. I just always remember that it could be worse and am thankful that it's not. Most of my piddly problems are self-inflicted and if I really take a good look at them, they won't be a problem tomorrow. Someone wise told me once, 'if it won't matter in five years, it's not a real problem.' That kind of makes you stand back and think doesn't it? Each little problem that bogs us down now will not even be remembered in five years time. And it might just have been a blessing in disguise because it prompted us to get off our duffs and change the situation we find ourselves in for the better.

Thinking back to the flowers, one of my greatest joys in spring is seeing a purple yard. I love to drive by and see a yard filled with so many little wild flowers that the yard is purple! It makes me so happy! Yet, if I get out and walk into that yard, I notice that each of those little purple flowers is attached to what most people call a weed. Weeds are just plants that are growing in the wrong spot! Sometimes, what gives us the most problems can actually also give us the most joy......yet there are those who miss out of the joy of a purple yard because we are so focused on each little weed, missing the big beautiful picture entirely.

Take time to really see the beauty around you today.....remember that sometimes your weeds cause others great joy!

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