{I am pulling this post out of the archives from April of 2020.} :)
{Click Image to Download your FREE 5"x7" print.}
What’s the saying, ” beauty is in the eye of the beholder?” When I refer to beauty, I’m pointing to the Divine. Let me explain a little more. I could spend hours sharing with you how grace and beauty have filled my life with glimpses of hope, joy, and purpose. It’s been twenty-plus years of “one thing after another” for my health, my husband’s health, and the situations we’ve found ourselves in that were completely out of our control, and at times traumatic. Yet, here I am to say we’ve made it through, Praise God. I know for me, I’ve made it through because somewhere along the way my heart was convicted to keep my focus on Jesus. Never-mind the chronic pain, brain surgery, debilitating pain, another brain surgery, seventeen surgeries for me (none of which were on my brain), breast cancer diagnosed twice within 18 months, and losing sixteen years of the life we had built (at that time) to a moldy house, which has forever changed my health. This has been the past eighteen years my friends. My creative journey started as a way for me to cope with chronic pain from a car accident that happened over twenty years ago. Something that started out as debilitating has taken me on such a journey of awe and discovery. Creativity for me has always been about healing. I want more than anything to encourage and enable you to experience the beauty that is part of your everyday life and express it creatively. My love of beauty started with a gratitude journal after months of agony following that car accident I mentioned above. Pain and depression tried to monopolize my days and quite honestly take over my life. So, I began writing out five things I was grateful for each day. The changes in my heart were almost immediate. Physically, things took quite a bit longer. However, I added purpose to my days, which was to find and document what I found as a blessing or beautiful and to also create in some way every single day, if possible. I documented with words and images and I cut and pasted photographs and papers together. Eventually, this led to my rekindled creative joy from high school – photography. One afternoon in 2014, while playing with a borrowed DSLR for the first time, the moment below occurred. When that monarch fluttered into my viewfinder and landed, allowing me to capture him sitting there so gracefully, it took my breath away. I was completely in awe. It was at that moment that I connected the action of taking that photograph with the experience of …
{When you download the image you'll learn a little more about how nurturing and healing this image is for me personally. }
Beauty is far beyond the physical, beyond the things we can see. While seeing is an amazing gift that enhances our sense of it, beauty is felt. It’s an experience, an invitation to notice the Divine in our lives. Beauty is:
– in photographs of people, places, memories, moments, and the dreams of our future. Some of these are enhanced by the feelings they invoke, supporting my thought that beauty is more than the eye can see. – in art. We see, touch, and experience art in many ways and on many levels. Sometimes art isn’t meant to be pretty or beautiful, but to get a response or emotion, sometimes even a negative one. It’s the opposite of beauty, which is a positive response. The standard of measure and comparison begins or ends with beauty and our reaction, whether it’s conscious or not. – in the process of creating. Whether it’s art, photographs, a meal, a home, a card, joy, laughter, beauty is part of creating on various levels. – in our words, thoughts, actions, moments, laughter, sadness, emotions, fear, kindness, unconditional love, love of others, love of self, the music that we make, or the music that moves us. I’m writing this post in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The number of things that are now much more meaningful and beautiful than before is immeasurable. However, I’m going to share a few thoughts below.
Imagine – – a hug from a friend, a sister, a cousin, a neighbor, a brother, a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, an uncle, a niece, a nephew, a granddaughter, or a grandson. – going out for a cup of coffee or tea in a quaint little cafe. – going for a walk in your favorite park or garden. – going camping and being out in nature. – sharing a smile with a stranger. – showing kindness to a stranger, just because we’re all human and we need a little extra love and kindness right now. – sharing laughter with a group of friends or family. – sharing a meal out in your favorite restaurant. Every single one of these last items I mentioned is not based on just something we see. The beauty is in the moments, the experiences, the joy, the laughter, the hope, the normalcy. It is from our reservoir of noticing and documenting the beauty that we enrich not only our life but the lives of those we love and care for. My hope and my purpose is to encourage and share the ways in which we may behold, embrace, experience, and share beauty; through all aspects of our creativity, our art, and our lives. Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder and right now all of the world needs each one of us to notice, share, and create from the beauty that is gifted to us each day. Part of the experience is slowing down and taking notice. Would you agree that for most of us, we’ve been forced to slow life way down? May you be encouraged to behold the beauty in your day-to-day, embrace it, and allow it to fill your days with purpose. PS – It is my joy to share a 5"x7" copy of the butterfly image below as a reminder to seek beauty. You may download it by clicking on the image. May it be a simple reminder to stop and notice the beauty in the everyday.
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