“Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy in overcoming obstacles. Remember, no effort that we make to attain something beautiful is ever lost.” – Helen Keller
If you live, you will face obstacles. Life never proceeds in a straight line. That said, of all the things you fill your day with, how many of them would you say relate to the attainment of beauty?
You were born with a sense of the beautiful, but you must exercise the capacity for it to have any meaning to you. As I was rushing off to work yesterday morning I captured this photo. Sometimes the beauty in a day comes early!
Gregory Hake 
Thank you for stating such a worthy goal for living the attainment of beauty.
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Just before I read your blog I was thinking about some challenges that friends of mine were having and how for the moment my life seemed in one of the less physically taxing times. Noting the beautiful seems sometimes easier during the more relaxed moments but looking back I probably missed many things when I was too “busy”. I have become more meditative and appreciate your thoughts. Not wanting to miss any more of the beauty in life I am looking to create the habit that will carry into my next interval of “busy”. Thank you for the reminder.
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Yes, something beautiful is always there, worth attaining, worth magnifying. In fact, without beauty, there is nothing to lighten the heart. To get bogged down in the ugly leads nowhere good; choose beauty and you choose to stand up and give your life a good chance to succeed.
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To be one that sees beauty in daily life, you have to be habitual in a few things. You have to perceive things that are outside of yourself. You have to have vision. If you walk around all day without being alert, self-absorption will keep you from seeing beauty.
The second thing you have to do is slow down when the time is right. “Stop and smell the roses” has become a trite saying, but if you are speeding around all day your life will lack the quality of ebb and flow that is necessary to perceive beauty.
Being able to see things like a beautiful tree and see its beauty for what it is is a very useful source of rest for the spirit. It doesn’t take a two week vacation to be rested, especially if we take these opportunities when they are offered.
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Beauty is all around us, but our heart must be cast in that direction to see it. If our hearts and thoughts are always focused on lack, comparison or complaint, we will miss out on the joys of life… even one as simple as the beauty of a tree.
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