All things beautiful

When life is less than ideal, I have to learn to look on the bright side, and I ought to know. Somehow I’ve forgotten to do this, and I blamed my environment for distorting my worldview of everything and killing my passion for all beautiful things, which is unfair. We are inclined to put the blame of our dissatisfaction on anything and everything but ourselves, and strangely, we feel justified to do so. Rarely do we look deep within our hearts and souls to dissect the root of our problems. Perhaps more sadly, we don’t admit it and fear having to change, and so we close both eyes and blindly conform to all that strangles us. Then I try to remember the little joys in life – the smell of sweet osmanthus in the breezy autumn air, that graceful butterfly that danced without a care, and the people who still choose to love and put up with me in spite of (not because of) who I am – and I steal a breath. I live not so that I would die – how good it is to be (still) alive!

Butterfly dating a flower in the Ma’an Hill Forest Park, September 22, 2018.