Digressions: My Life in 500 Words or Less

By most accounts this has been a fairly mild winter season. That changed Wednesday, when ice draped our landscape like a tablecloth spread over a piece of dining room furniture.

But this blog is not about the weather.

It’s about beauty.

See, it’s not like it isn’t everywhere. Beauty, that is.

Sometimes it’s harder to find or appreciate than at other times. Sometimes we just don’t make the time to look for it. And sometimes we just don’t look hard enough.

The ice storm is a good example. It’s not that the storm itself was beautiful. When it comes to winter, I am a fan of snow, but I am not so much a fan of ice.

Ice creates hazardous driving conditions.

But it can also create beauty.

I was struck by this fact when I glanced out my front door this morning. The warm glow of the lamp post in our front yard contrasted with the icicles hanging off it, not to mention the landscape of snow and ice.

The beauty of that sight caught my attention. Immediately, I knew I needed to take photos.

Then, when I took our two Pomeranians, Tybalt and Zorro, outside about noon, I could see how the ice transformed trees, shrubs and other vegetation into stunning crystal-like sculptures.

Yeah, I took photos again. I could have easily taken many, many more.

All this made me think about the duality of things, how beauty can be found under otherwise ugly circumstances. And I guess, like most things, it is subjective.

That’s not to say groups might not share a definition of beauty, but we define such an attribute ourselves. It’s that whole “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” thing.

Even so, we also decide ourselves how we wish to acknowledge beauty, if even at all. And all this ultimately feeds us or starves us of it.

I can’t help but believe taking time to appreciate beauty feeds a hungry soul. So I tend to try to appreciate it and allow it time in my life whenever I can.

In no way do I suggest the dangers of the icy roads should be overlooked or downplayed. But there is more to see than the ugliness of a driving hazard.

Beauty is abundant. And our souls can feast.