Beauty Abounds

Noticing makes all the difference

We’ve got five full months under our belts now living in this rental property. Our house renovation is making steady progress but we’ll probably still be here through most of the summer. It isn’t awful but it isn’t home. The yard is a bit of a shambles and having grown up working a golf course, I do take a bit of pride in keeping a nice yard. But it turns out, there is beauty here I didn’t expect.

Ferns everywhere. Almost too many. You can have too much of a good thing. Lot of miscellaneous green things and blooming things arranged in no particular way other than forming a border around the grass.

But in the midst of the chaotic array of greenery, there emerged this:

I have never attempted to grow a bearded iris and not sure I’ve ever taken the time before to study one. Stunningly beautiful flower. The yard feels a bit shinier now.

This find capped off a string of simple discoveries in May. At the beginning of the month, I wrote in my journal the intention of presence as a daily focus. What I have found over the course the month and now into June is that very deliberately slowing down reveals things that have been sitting right in front of me. Getting old isn’t such a bad thing. I’m finding options now that probably were not available even just a few years ago.

At the end of my movement classes, we stand still(ish) for a few minutes and close with a little wisdom bit. Yesterday’s was this from author Ann Patchett:

“Never be so focused on what you’re looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find.”

Indeed.