Beauty is everywhere. It’s hard to see sometimes though because we get so caught up in the daily grind. We seem to be so busy and moving so quickly here and there, doing this and that, that we miss so much.

I remember the first time I saw American Beauty. I was taken by a scene where a boy showed his girlfriend a video of the most beautiful thing he had ever shot. The T.V. came on and showed a plastic shopping bag being blown around by the wind. Of course, this isn’t something that most people would put on a most beautiful list. The character described why he thought it was beautiful. The bag was dancing in the wind by the side of a building. It was captivating to watch, and it reminded me how you can just stare at a fire and the flames as they dance. The bag continued to do its dance for the camera for ten minutes. That is beauty.

On the weekend, I played baseball at the school diamond. At a slow point in the game, I looked over to the school that I work at. It struck me as a beautiful sight. I don’t know why but I stared at it and smiled. Next thing I knew, the ball was flying by me and I had to hustle to make up for my lack of attention. It was also a beautiful day. Beauty was all around me. The last beautiful thing about the game was that my team won. Of course, just sharing this time with friends was also amazing. The whole experience; that was beauty.

My favourite book Heartbeat by Sharon Creech is a beautiful work of art. The words jump off the page. They are so poetic and beautiful. The story is heart-warming. I just love it. I shared it with my class last week as well. I showed them a PowerPoint presentation I had made so that the students could read the words as they came up from the audio CD. It was a lot of work to put that together but it was worth it. The kids seemed to really enjoy it. The audio book, the printed word, and the students’ reactions to it were beautiful.

Music is beauty. Good television shows are beauty. People are beauty, and I just don’t mean the supermodel types. People tend to focus on celebrities when they speak of beautiful people and beauty in general. I think people might have too narrow a definition if they think that way. I am guilty myself at times of this as well. I just hope that I can continue to see the beauty in the everyday grind and not lose that sense of wonder at the things and people around me.