Find Beauty ... In Everything

​Happy Whatever-Day-It-Is!
 
Since last writing, a lot has changed in the world. This, we know.
                            
Almost four months have passed since a pesky, yet powerful, virus made its international debut. Week by week, day by day (and even hour by hour), we’ve watched country after country radically change its modus operandi so to deal with the effects, head on.
 
From reading the news online, or listening to the radio, we’ve come to learn that life for millions of people has changed, perhaps irrevocably. Life as we know it is likely not to be the same, ever again. As a girlfriend mentioned yesterday on the telephone, we are not experiencing a ‘new’ normal, but rather the ‘next’ normal.
 
Consider the question on most peoples’ minds:  When are we getting back to normal? Admittedly, I have great difficulty with this particular question. I personally don’t wish to ‘go back’ to a state of existence that fostered the creation of this virus in the first place (not to mention human conflict, industrial atrocities and environmental degradation).
 
Instead, I wish to ‘go forward’.  I wish for humanity to take with it all the lessons learned from its past (last week, last year, last century) and combine it with all the ‘good’ in order to come up with a new recipe for existence. After all, isn’t that what evolution is all about?
                                                   
On the much brighter side of life, so many wonderful and magical facets continue to carry on uninterrupted and unaffected by that pesky little virus. While we each keep our distance and stay safe and sound at home, nothing has stopped spring from springing here on the south coast of British Columbia. Just the other day, I giggled in glee at the sight of the first salmonberry blossoms, the migrating mountain bluebirds, the fast-flying rufous hummingbirds, and the red-headed turkey vultures soaring high above the treetops. From the depths of the forest I heard the sweet tunes of the Pacific Wren and Varied Thrush (my two all-time favourite bird calls). And, I can’t wait for the entire valley to be immersed in the intoxicating scent of budding cottonwood trees. Nothing says ‘spring’ more than that.
 
When times were tough several years ago, and I needed reminding of the wonders of the world, I sought out beauty in whatever form it took. Tranquility and grounding were found in the scent of a wild rose, a ray of sun through the trees, a glistening drop of rain clinging to the tip of a leaf, the laughter of my children. One by one, these essences of beauty reinforced in me that yes, the world I wanted to live in truly did exist. That beauty, at times incredibly obvious, could also be found in the most unlikely places. I reminded myself that beauty existed everywhere.
 
I survived that former dark time, and left it behind, once and for all. What I carried with me, into my new world, in addition to all the hard-earned lessons of the past, was the knowledge that everything is beautiful.  Because of this personal evolution, my life will always be filled with beauty.
 
As we move together through this shared dark time, carry with you that same belief in beauty. Look for it, every day, in places large or small, as a sound, a scent, or texture. Beauty is there to be found. All you have to do is look for it.