Finding Beauty

This morning as I was driving homeward after the all-too-early bleary-eyed school drop-off, I realized something:  we've hit that time of year when, just as I top the hill toward the turn back home, sunrise begins.

And this morning?  It was glorious.  Fluffy apricot clouds with edges tinged with violet, and with the barest hint of gilded light beginning to break through as the sun began its quest toward the dawn.

I hadn't had nearly enough coffee at that point, but it was so lovely and so perfect for that instant that I looked upward and marveled at the skies.

By the time I had gotten home?

The sun was already up enough on the horizon that the picture was too spoiled to bother grabbing my camera.  In the span of only a few minutes time.

I would have missed it entirely had I not looked at what was right in front of me.

Isn't that the way in life, though?  Amazing things happen right in front of us every single day, and we miss them altogether because our minds are elsewhere.  Our children accomplish amazing feats -- that first properly tied shoe, the first whistle or snap, the first whatever it might be -- but we pass them by all too often as just the regular course of things.  The same with those loving moments where we could pause to savor a hug, but we rush through on the way to the next check-off on our to do list and agenda.

The best things in life are when we truly pause to find beauty in our everyday world.  Today, I'm hoping you find a moment where you get to do just that, and savor it while it lasts.

For, like this morning's sunrise, you can find that these moments are all too fleeting.  And it would be a shame to miss that amazingly glorious moment because you were too busy to look up to see it right in front of you.


(Photo via tankgirlrs.  Love the color in this shot, and the way the micro detail is so well drawn out with the soft focus on the colored petals.  Just gorgeous!)