Sometimes I miss it completely.  My life so full of so many things to do, meetings to attend, whining children.  The clutter is often times hard to overcome.  But then, when I least expect it, there it is.  Beauty.

I have been thinking a lot about how it truly is all around us.  We may choose not to see it, ignore it or allow our lives to be cluttered by so many things we miss it but it is still there.  I have been finding that beauty can exist in the strangest places, throughout the most mundane circumstances and in the relationships you would least expect.  I need to take the time to see it and appreciate it more often.  We all do.

This past weekend I had the chance to drive just 110 minutes to see what is arguably one of the most beautiful places in the entire world.  There I stood in Yosemite Valley and I took it all in.  I felt so incredibly small.  The beauty of it all was so astonishing and yet I had not been to Yosemite (again less than two hours away from my house) for nearly 10 years.  As I stood there, looking at the beauty that surrounded me I laughed a little bit at how lost I get.  How narrowly focussed I can become on the negative and the things that are well… less than beautiful.  As I stood at the base of Yosemite Falls on Saturday I was reminded that as beautiful as Yosemite truly is, beauty is all around us.  At our fingertips nearly everyday if we are open to seeing it.

I am making a greater effort this week to slow down…take things in…appreciate my surroundings…listen to classical music and I’m even trying to enjoy the rain this week and worry less about the challenges it brings to the park on Spring Break week.  Most importantly, I am trying to pay close attention to the beauty in each and every one of the relationships I have.  I have tried to listen more closely to my friends and family this week and truly see how each one plays such an important role in my life Every relationship, each friendship brings its own variety of beauty.  

There is something about searching for the beauty in my life that brings a certain amount of peace.  I hope I can continue to keep my eyes open for beauty can pop up in the strangest places.