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Seeing the Beauty

Recently, a blog friend, Karin, posted about all the beautiful wild flowers in her area . . in a drought stricken dry to the core area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We’re still in the midst of a drought, though we’ve had more rain than we had last year, but it’s so easy to see the trees that are in distress or the brown fields or the dried up ponds, but there are still little flowers that bloom everywhere!  Mother Nature hasn’t given up.

These are cactus (along with a few weeds) in a bed here.  These bright, cherry red balls have been on top of them for several months now.  They certainly are a bright spot in that bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two types of flowers in this picture.  I thought the tiny little tan things were mushrooms but on closer inspection, they’re some kind of flower.

While out taking the pictures, I noticed the bantams were staring at me.  They were so interested in what I was doing!

I love seeing Vince’s chair sitting there, where he spends time with them every evening.  These little chickens bring him joy.  Roscoe with his beautiful tail feathers.  Thelma and Louise with their big, black eyes, Tiffany is light as a feather and she seems to just float with each step and . . goofy Otis!  It’s good to see Vince enjoying the beauty around him.  He sometimes struggles with seeing more ugly than beauty.  Maybe Living with Screwed Up People will do that to you!  Smile

From comments left here and from what I read on Facebook, too many of us are not taking time to see the beauty.  It’s everywhere!  Yes, there’s sadness and ugliness everywhere too but we have choices.  We can concentrate on the sadness and the ugliness or we can concentrate on the happiness and the beauty.  I don’t think we often realize how much negativity we let into our lives.  We cannot stop bad things from happening but we can control how we react to it and how much time we spend obsessing about it.

When I first decided to use the Ruby picture for my ChipIt! palette, I kept second guessing myself.  All the oranges and browns and pinky reds. I definitely hadn’t done much research to see what’s popular or what’s “hot” right now and I still don’t know where those colors rate these days but now that I’m looking for them, they’re everywhere!  Vince even sent me an email this morning forwarding something he had received from Chili’s and he said “Even Chili’s is using your palette colors.”

It’s just like beauty and goodness . . when you take time to notice them . . really take note of them, they’re everywhere.  Sometimes when Vince and I are talking in the evening, we’ll say “What was the best part of your day?” and sometimes we say “What was the worst part of your day?”  I know . . my life is real close to perfect but a whole lot of days, I can’t think of anything bad that happened to me.  Really, bad is kind of relative.  Yes, being bit by a brown recluse spider and a black widow two days later . . that’s bad but that’s one thing that happened (really, two things that happened on two different days).  There were a million things that are good that happen each day.

Think about this . . I’ve been canning all week.  Every one of my jars has sealed.  That’s great!  I don’t think of it as a fantastic thing that happened but if even 10% of my jars had not sealed, I would think of that as terrible.  We need to celebrate the good things more!

Today . . and tomorrow . . and the next day . . don’t see the drought.  Don’t see the dead grass, the struggling trees, the dried up ponds . . look for the flowers!  Look for the positive things in life and concentrate on those things!

If you can change the negative that’s happening in your life  . . change it but if you can’t change it, make the best of it.  Find a reason to be happy.  You have 24 hours in each day to get through.  How are you going to go through your day?  Are you going to smile and bring some happiness to those around you?  Or, are you going to be grumpy and sad and bring down those around you?

It’s totally your choice – not necessarily the circumstances you’re in but how  you react to those circumstances!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Beautiful thoughts Judy – I will try to see the good in the days at work!! Interesting though I’m just listening to the radio before work and they are talking about depression and I have just googled meditation in our district to see if I can get into that. Many people applaud it. We’ll see 🙂

  2. Well said. Sometimes we get so busy that we really do forget to stop and see the beauty around us or to look for the good side of things.

  3. Judy, when I left city life, I vowed that negative people would not be allowed in my space. This has been so wonderful. I have such beauty around me and it brings tranquility to me. When I encounter negative folks, I just excuse myself and leave. I have tried so many times to help them change but it’s a life they embrace. With only my golden years left, I having the best years ever. I love beeing retired and cherish every day. Your blog is how I begin and end my day. You usually leave me with a little humor. So keep up “your way” as I think it’s a perfect way.

  6. Thank you for this post. 🙂

    I enjoyed the picture of Vince’s chair in front of the chickens. How relaxing that must be at the end of one’s busy day.

    Have a great night!

  7. The good things in life are never hard to find if we take the moment to look! Each day truly is a gift. Thank you for the kind and gentle reminders. We all need them on occasion. Hugs!

  8. I like looking at life in a positive manner, yet being aware that there ARE negatives – and adjusting my life accordingly. To ignore the that there are negatives in life – no. But to make lemonade from those lemons as much as possible – this is what I’ve tried to do myself and to teach my children to do – and for the most part what we do – with varying degrees of success.

  9. I like thinking and playing the Glad game, like Pollyanna. It’s hard when bad things happen to good people. Some days it’s hard to console them even though I try. Life is TOO short to not be happy with what you have got. Glad Vince is enjoying the Chickens as much as you do. Did you ask him about the book on the kindle?

  10. There is certainly enough negativity in the world to go around. There’s nothing we can do about most of the ugliness and sadness, as you say, so concentrating on something that makes us happy only makes sense. For Vince it’s the bantams, for me it’s opening the window in the morning and listening to the birds sing while I drink my tea. I know I’ll soon have to close the window and turn the AC back on but for that little while I hear the birds and let the fresh air in. It’s a good way to start the day.

  11. SMILE!!! takes less face muscles and can make someone else smile, tooo

  12. AMEN Judy — well said! When I have friends who are going through troubled times, and they have a hard time focusing on anything but the challenges they’re facing, I recommend keeping a gratefulness journal. The idea is to find at least ONE good thing to write about in your journal at the end of every day – no matter how difficult that day has been. Those that take up the challenge always come back and thank me because it truly helps them put things back in perspective.

    And with regard to the first part of your post, someone once told me that flowers are Mother Nature’s way of keeping the species alive. 😀

  13. This is a beautiful post! And a very good reminder. I am glad I stopped by to read it. Love the picture with the chair. It tells a story. A good story. It has been hot here, but not as hot as it is for you. Here was have the dry heat. But what makes me miserable is that we have no a/c. Doesn’t work. So we turn on the fans. I got home today and it was 94 outside and 91 inside. Soon the wind was coming up and slowly it started cooling down outside. Enough to start opening the windows. At this moment it is only cooled down to 89 inside, but outside it is now down it 86. Yay! Joy in the little things like a cooling off day.

    As a rehab therapist, I am always trying to bring joy to my patients. I always say to them ‘Thank you for working with me”. And many will say back to me “No. Thank YOU for work with me.” I love that. I say that to the grumpy patients too. And sometimes I can get a smile out of them. That makes my day when that happens. I love it when my patients smile back. Hopefully that means I have brought them some joy as they heal and get stronger.

    Thank you again for this post!

    ~Linnea

  14. Thank you so much! Please remind us to look for the positive every now and again. It’s so easy to fall back into negative thinking.

  15. Very nice post… I find as I get older I am more positive.. my husband gets more negative. But daily I find the best in my life… (grand-kids help with that…)

  16. Today my grandson and I played in the much needed rain. It was his first time to play in rain. We splashed in puddles and ran for a few minutes. We got totally soaked! Then I brought him in and let him play in a warm bath with lots of bubbles. Afterwards I made tea cakes and let him decorate them with chocolate icing. I didn’t think about all the bad in the world. I didn’t listen to the news or read the paper. It was a glorious day even though it was soggy and cloudy. That’s how I want my Grandson to remember me and see the world. We laughed and giggled. Your post makes me glad we had a chance to make lemonade.

    Good post! Thanks, Judy, for reminding us to see the good.

  17. Thank you Judy for this post! I really needed it today as recent challenges have turned my normal optimistic attitude completely upside down which hasn’t been good for me or anyone around me.

  18. Thank you for the reminder. I think many people start out with a positive outlook but get bogged down with what is immediately in their life. It’s fantastic to hear other people voice thoughts similar to my daily mantra. “You only have today. Enjoy it anyway.”

  19. I love this post – that is exactly how I feel too. I choose to be happy and content and try not to let negative take hold. I do have a hard time being around a couple of friends that are more on the negative route as it brings me down too. I figure I have been given this life for how ever long it lasts and why make myself miserable and waste those precious hours/days. I read once that if you are in a bad mood or down you should go to a mirror and smile at yourself or go out among people and smile at every person you see and pretty soon you will be having a good day instead of the bad.

  21. Very well put, Judy. And, sometimes, when you can’t see much good in your own little world, you just need to go for a walk and see what God has put out for display just around the corner from you. I am constantly amazed by new things growing, new and different birds in the trees, even new bugs that appear along the route as Ozzie and I go for our walks. It’s a grand world we live in.

  22. I am SO behind in reading blogs! I’ve been fighting the Internet all month. I suppose that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you live in the sticks and I’ll take the sticks every time…hand over the crumbles cookies too! Great post Judy! Hope y’all have had some rain by now. We had some and I even had to mow – I was so excited! 🙂

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