noticing beauty

Signposts, exploring everyday spirituality www.innovativeresources.org

Noticing beauty. Finding beauty. Chasing butterflies. Star gazing. Cloud watching. Smelling the roses.

These are considered 'normal' things attached to beauty.

Ever find yourself so wound up racing here and there that you have to deliberately stop to notice beauty? Sometimes when responsibilities crowd in find myself wanting to chase butterflies like a child, stare at the ocean, wander in the botanical gardens or just watch the sunset.

Is that avoiding responsibility? Or seeking solace in the midst of the tide pull of 'too busy schedule' over balance?

This week found myself seeing & feeling people's pain in an acute way. Yet in the midst of existential pain noticing incredible beauty & resilience.

We all carry a cross of some description.

Caring for a disabled child, struggling with depression, anxiety disorders, death of a child, death of a spouse, challenging work situations, challenging family situations, divorce, single parenting, dementia diagnosis, cancer diagnosis, financial crisis, infertility, the ageing process, dying process, not getting into Uni, betrayal of a partner, relationship breakdowns, unwanted singleness, child abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, redundancy.....

None of us are immune to pain, suffering or struggle, potential job loss or diagnosis of a life limiting illness.

But what I have seen alongside suffering is remarkable resilience, courage, hope & beauty.

This week have been inspired afresh by people I work with, people I care for & clients who teach me how to notice beauty in the most unconventional places.

Though I long for chasing butterflies & watching sunsets, I have seen incredible beauty in the amazing colours & diversity of the human spirit; in the dedication of loving relatives caring for a mother with dementia, in a brother's love sitting by his bed as he breathes his last breath,  in colleagues who juggle caring for disabled spouses & children yet are solutions focused in the midst of crisis, news articles of flood recovery stories, in the tears of a friend struggling post redundancy.

Noticing beauty in the crosses people bear

Cherishing what others teach me in their pain

Grateful for inspiration in troubled times