Choosing beauty

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.” Anne Frank, Nazi-fighting fire brand

The only places in the world that are not beautiful are ones that people have messed up. Think about it. There is nothing in nature that’s truly horrific. A single visit to a forest, for example, reveals that even decomposition has an odd beauty to it. Life goes on.

Someone else planted the azaleas. We added hostas and more. Beauty is a process in the garden.

People, of course, have an amazing ability to make things ugly and disorderly. But, they also have the capacity to make things wonderful.

Our souls call out for beauty and order, in fact. I suspect this need is hard wired into us, yet another connection to a Creator who did not rest until He had achieved “very good.” Sunrises, moss, flower buds, butterfly wings. Very good, indeed. And, very beautiful.

*This idea for a homespun birdbath is a spin on a glass one I saw on the Starrcreative blog. I had these pieces hanging around and they brighten up the garden deck. The birds seem unusually happy.*

We will never make a monarch or a rainbow trout or a tree. But, we can make our beds and keep the dishes done and tidy up. We can add some color to our wardrobe and brush our hair every morning. We can add a fluffy pillow to the couch or put some fresh flowers in a fancy vase or a jar or a tin can — whatever we’ve got.

Many of us can also take beauty to the street with a garden. It may be a yard worthy of Southern Living magazine. It may be raised beds filled with straight rows of greens or tomatoes staked into obedience. It may be a single terra cotta pot overflowing with petunias.

Bits of beauty offered here and there to a broken world matter. It’s good. Very good.

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