Last week I bought a bunch of flowers at the Food Coop. When I brought them home I noticed a single green stem among all of the flowers and thought that it was a pretty scraggly looking piece of foliage.
Yesterday as I was removing a faded flower from the bouquet I noticed that the”scraggly-looking” foliage was actually in bloom. And when I pulled the single stem from the bouquet and placed it all by itself in a vase I could see the graceful curves of it’s stem and branches. Seeing the delicate beauty and grace of this single stem reminded me that the practice of
Seeing Beauty
never ends.
It would have been so easy for me to miss these delicate flowers. And I’m so l glad I didn’t as photographing them brought me great joy.
It makes me wonder what other wonders I regularly miss.
Seeing beauty is a practice of looking at the world with eyes of wonder, gratitude, and love.
I have a much easier time seeing beauty in nature and flowers than I do in gritty city scenes. This is probably because of hidden judgments that I have about what is beautiful and what is not. I believe that if I look with beginners mind I will find beauty wherever I am.
This summer while we are spending more time at home because of COVID-19 I have been taking regular wandering walks through our yard finding beauty in unexpected places. Spending time in nature, even in your own back yard, is healing. Seeing beauty is healing.
“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
―
Ways to experience more beauty in your life
- Pause. Close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Listen. What do you hear? Now open your eyes and gaze softly around you. What do you notice?
- Let go of judgment and expectation. If you are certain of what you will see before you look, then you miss a whole lot of life and beauty that shine out in unexpected places.
- Open your heart. Let go of any resistance you are feeling to being here now in this moment. Look all around you and look up and down. What do you see?
Here is a beautiful video that I love:
Beauty is often hidden in plain sight within the mundane details of daily life.
Try the practice of seeing beauty in your life.
May you walk in beauty.
0 Comments