Beauty is Everywhere and it is Fleeting
A boat at sunset. The colors, light, and clouds looked like this for maybe 30 seconds at the most. Then it all faded away. Blink and you miss it.
What We See Is Always Temporary
It is up to us to see it. We are not required or forced to see it; it is always a choice. Beauty comes and goes quickly. You have to look AND see it. What is there now may not return in that exact form ever again. We are blessed with a world that is ever-changing and ever-wonderful. I remember getting up early and trying to take photos of a sunrise so many times and then missing the few seconds of perfect light. I have tried to capture a scene with the light hitting the subject just right or shadows moving across a scene, and I missed it in a mere moment. The scene was perfect, but it left and moved on quickly. I have learned from those experiences that it is not just capturing the sight on a chip in my camera that matters; it is that fact that I also miss so much with my eyes and ears. You will miss it if you are not ready and do not see the beauty around you right now. We notice only a fraction of the beauty around us because we are constantly distracted.
“It was tribute enough to sunup that it could make even chaparral bushes look beautiful, Augustus thought, and he watched the process happily, knowing it would only last a few minutes.” (McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove. Riverside: Simon & Schuster, 2010)
As I read those lines in the book Lonesome Dove recently, I was reminded of one of my favorite videos. It comes back to my mind constantly, and this line captures its essence. Are we grateful for the small moments of beauty around us? In this video, Louie Schwartzberg, a photographer who makes amazing stop-motion videos that can take years of work for a few short minutes of film, created a project he shares at a TEDx symposium. In his video, an older man shares his feelings on gratitude. He follows a very young girl who is doing the same. The words of the older man are below.
“You think this is just another day in your life. It's not just another day. It's the one day that is given to you today. It's given to you; it's a gift. It's the only gift that you have right now, and the only appropriate response is gratefulness.
“If you do nothing else but to cultivate that response to the great gift that this unique day is, if you learn to respond as if it were the first day in your life and the very last day, then you will have spent this day very well.
“Begin by opening your eyes and be surprised that you have eyes you can open, that incredible array of colors that is constantly offered to us for pure enjoyment. Look at the sky. We so rarely look at the sky. We so rarely note how different it is from moment to moment with clouds coming and going. We just think of the weather. And even with the weather, we don't think of all the many nuances of weather, we just think of good weather and bad weather. This day, right now, it's unique weather, maybe a kind that will never exactly in that form come again. The formation of clouds in the sky will never be the same that is right now. Open your eyes.
“Look at that.
“Look at the faces of people whom you meet. Each one has an incredible story behind their face, a story that you could never fully fathom. Not only their own story but the story of their ancestors. We all go back so far. And in this present moment, on this day, all the people you meet, all that life from generations and from so many places all over the world, flows together and meets you here like a life-giving water if you only open your heart and drink.
“Open your heart to the incredible gifts that civilization gives to us. You flip a switch, and there is electric light. You turn a faucet, and there is warm water and cold water and drinkable water. It's a gift that millions and millions in the world will never experience. So these are just a few of an enormous number of gifts to which we can open our heart.
“And so I wish that you will open your heart to all these blessings and let them flow through you, that everyone whom you will meet on this day will be blessed by you, just by your eyes, by your smile, by your touch. Just by your presence.
“Let the gratefulness overflow into blessing all around you.
“And then it will really be a good day.”
“The Only Appropriate Response if Gratefulness”
You can watch the video here. Over the last decade or more, this has been something I have repeatedly returned to. It has never failed to bring tears.
It is up to us to see it. We are not required or forced to see it; it is always a choice. Beauty comes and goes quickly. You have to look AND see it. What is there now may not return in that exact form ever again. We are blessed with a world that is ever-changing and ever-wonderful.