Simple beauty.
This one reached out to me. I don’t know why. Most of the time, I write the reflection first, and then begins the painstaking search for the right picture to go with the post.
This can often take longer than writing the reflection, as I try to make the picture something meaningful along with the message. My wife Holly and I have had some interesting ‘discussions’ over my choices of pictures.
But today, the picture demanded to be shared, and I had to find the message in it. And it turned out all I needed to do was to look at it, and see the simple beauty of the flower.
I was diagnosed as being ‘color blind’ when I was around 12-13 years old. As a child it wasn’t really a problem for me, especially since I attended a school with a uniform, so I was always wearing the same colors.
As a teenager, you are expected to make some questionable clothing choices as you ‘find your own style’ (Miami Vice: 2-piece white suit – what was I thinking). But as an adult, my inability to match colors properly has presented some interesting challenges.
Let’s just say that you don’t want me helping you to re-wire your house. You really, really don’t.
So whenever I see a picture like today’s, which uses contrast and color so magnificently, I always wonder how someone without my color deficiency, would see it. Is it more or less beautiful than the way I see it?
But the harder I look, the more I realize that the colors and the shape are less important to me. When I look closer and deeper into this picture, I appreciate the structure of the plant.
I wonder at the biochemical mechanisms that turn sunlight into energy, that can absorb water through roots going deep into the earth.
And I realize that what makes this flower special, wonderful and amazing is not the color or the shape, but the power that it represents. It is fragile, yet it is strong. It can stand through rain and wind, sun and storm.
It can bring happiness to others, and yet it is unique, perfect, and most especially…it is enough.
It all depends on how you see.
I wonder how many times in your life you have only judged yourself by how you appear, and not who you are? It’s far too easy in our visually dependent world to judge someone on looks; not on their character, their capabilities, their kindness, their charity, or their awareness.
Today, why not stop looking at how you look, and instead just accept that you ARE? Being is enough, it doesn’t require a label, or a qualification, to determine value.
I invite you to consider the following:
I am.
I am here.
I am now.
When you truly understand what that means, you’ll understand why it means everything.
And why you are enough.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings