Let’s see the Beauty together.

I believe that everything and everyone has beauty. I can’t remember the exact time that I figured this out for myself, but I can tell you that it wasn’t that long ago. What I do remember was sitting in the back of my parents van, my dad angry about being stuck in traffic. We were returning from a weekend trip spent up north fishing and swimming (it was a hot September). I remember being annoyed with all the flies and bugs. I remember being annoyed with the fact that we had to walk 4 km to get to an ice cream parlour. Why didn’t my dad pick a place that I would enjoy as well? Selfish, I thought. I was sure my dad picked this place without even thinking about what I would enjoy. I spent the whole weekend sulking and reading a book, hoping that the book would take me away.

In the van, I was listening to music. We were barely moving and my dad was going on about how we’ll get home after midnight in this sort of traffic. Yeah, it was getting to me too. I had to go to the bathroom and I just wanted to be home so I wouldn’t need to spend another minute with my parents. Just as I was thinking that, I heard sirens. I got up from my lying position to see what was going on. In the far distance, you could already see a couple of ambulances and a fire truck. The sirens were the sound of a police car swinging past us. As we neared the site of the accident, we saw just how horrific it was. The cars resembled scrap pieces of metal. One had been on fire but had already been put out by the time we got there. Still, the whole car was black with ruin. We saw two people on stretchers lifted up into the ambulances. One looked severely burned, the other one was bleeding quite heavily. My mom, being religious, made the sign of the cross. My dad stopped complaining. I just sat there.

It seemed like forever before my thoughts resumed. In reality it was probably only a few seconds. I lay back down and tried to lose myself in the music again, but this time it wasn’t working. This wasn’t the first bad accident I had seen. In fact, I’ve seen things much worse than that before. This time, the accident happened at just that precise time when I was thinking this whole world was against me. I was perhaps 15 or 16 years old when I realized that the whole world was not against me. These thoughts were running through my mind when I jumped up from my seat and begged my dad to go back.

“What’s wrong? Did you forget something?” my mother asked, annoyed. She’s not a fan of impulsive thoughts.

“No, I just forgot to look at something!” I was desperate. This was my one chance.

“You forgot to look at something? Of course you forgot to look at something, your nose was in the books the whole weekend. You could have stayed at home if that’s all you wanted to do” my dad was quick to say.

“I know, that’s exactly why I want to go back.”

“We’re not going back. I didn’t drive one hour to drive back another hour and then drive back another hour and you know what I mean” my dad started, getting a bit confused at the end there. This made me laugh. I laughed out loud for a few minutes, unable to stop. I’m sure my parents thought I was losing my mind. Towards the end though, even they couldn’t keep a serious face and I could see my mom smiling and my dad smirking.

“Please?” I begged again.

“Whatever you want to look at better be good” my dad said, taking the exit that we were nearing and back we went.

I was determined to look at the place in a new light. I felt like I had just learned an important lesson. Upon arrival, a cloud of little flies were already dancing around my head. It was hard to ignore at first, but I just kept walking. I took in all the little white cottages lining the river. I looked at all the small shops selling beer and ice. A few teenagers sitting on a rock in the middle of the river, bathing and sun tanning. While my parents went to buy some sandwiches, I went to sit on a rock. I wasn’t looking where I was sitting, but just as I was about to put my hand down on the rock, I realized there was a whole army of ants patrolling around. I quickly jumped up. Those nasty ants. But as I looked at them, I realized that they’re really quite selfless creatures. They go out on long ventures to find food to bring home and share it with everyone else.

At this point, I was inspired to look around even more. I soon found the beauty in the decaying leaves, in the daylight, in the dirty crooked trees and even the dancing flies that were still around my head. This is when I also realized that my dad took me there not because he was selfish, but because he saw the beauty of the place. He already saw that which I had just learned. The rest of the day, I was floating in happiness. How could I have walked around 15 or 16 years of my life and not noticed the beauty in the simple things?

I took this new found revelation with me everywhere I went from that day on. The ability to see things in a different light was especially helpful a few years later when I found myself working part time at a hotel while still in University. While all my colleagues perfected complaining and judging the people walking through our door, I had the ability to be comfortable enough not to join my colleagues and actually giving the best service I could to these people. Yes, some were demanding, some were rude, some were nice, but they were all beautiful somehow. They were tall, small, large, larger. They were angry, sad, happy, and sometimes even drunk. No matter what they looked like, or how they behaved, they all had a story and a quality that made them unique. My ability to see the best in all of our guests eventually earned me the job of dealing with our most difficult guests and our most difficult situations. To most of my colleagues disbelief, I actually really enjoyed it.

I wanted to understand why things have so much beauty. After some contemplation, I decided that these things are beautiful, but that beauty is not necessarily obvious. I began to pay close attention to how people perceived things. “That’s so ugly”, “She’s so fat”, “He’s so weird”, “That’s the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen”. Those were all too common. Does it just take time? Will people eventually realize that even the fat woman or the broke down house or that weird kid in the corner of the classroom are beautiful? Will people eventually realize that once you learn the story behind something or someone, their beauty just radiates? Or do some people go their entire lives without noticing how many amazing things are placed around us? I don’t know. But what I do know is that by realizing what I had been missing, I found a whole new world. A world of beauty. Everything is better when everything and everyone is beautiful.

I made a commitment to myself that day when my dad returned to Rice Lake – the place up north with all the flies and bugs and the ice cream parlour 4 km away. I made a commitment to never again see an ugly world.

From now on, I will the beauty in even the most seemingly unattractive places and people.

And I’ve lived by that every since.

Now, 7-8 years later, I can say that I’m happier because of that promise I made to myself. I still continue to pay attention to how people perceive things, and I’ve noticed that it’s become much more positive. Perhaps that’s because people learn to see the beauty in everything as they grow older. Perhaps that is because I’ve surrounded myself with positive people. Whatever the reason, I know that lots of people know exactly what I’m talking about. I know that there are people out there who are even better than me at seeing the beauty in everything. However, I also know that there are some people out there who are struggling to see the beauty that’s all around us.

So, I decided that once every week, I will do a different type of post. I will post an item, a person, anything. I will then write about the beauty that I see in it. I hope that this will show you the way I think about even the most unconventional things. Maybe one post won’t help you change your thinking pattern, but maybe a series of them will. Maybe you already see the beauty in everything, and it’s highly possible that you might be even better at it than me. In that case, I welcome your stories and opinions. Whatever the case may be, I hope you will enjoy it.

Look for Beauty Today starting this Tuesday.