Ice, sleet, freezing rain….we are getting a little of all of it today.  It isn’t a pretty day, but if you look there is beauty in it.

…where it is in short supply according to the daily news reports.  It is the old “half full or half empty” view we all choose to filter our own perception of us and the world around us.  I choose “hope” and an ever filling life-cup to drink from.

Each of us can be overwhelmed by events in our lives… some good and some bad… simply more than we can handle at that moment.  It is in those moments I choose to go in search of beauty in any place I can find it. 2009 was a challenging year of injury and recovery for me.  I fight hard to be engaged in my life, and I take no excuse as a reason to quit trying.  2009 found me having to accept some uncertainties.

I felt like this waterfall. Frozen and encased in solitude struggling to find the button to defrost.  Surely it was within reach of my fingertips if I stretched towards it with everything I had.  It didn’t happen at all at first.  I struggled until one day it finally penetrated my wee brain to accept and look for HOPE.  Beauty in nature, smiles, laughter, friends, and a whole long list of things could elevate me to a place HOPE could take over.  Once again I’d be able to live in “today” and trust with HOPE in tomorrow.

All of the images in this post spoke to me. It wasn’t because I was the one pressing the shutter, but each one of them at a different time brought feelings of joy.  Joy in the beauty of people and glimpses of nature surrounding me all the time.   In those feelings came a remembering that we cannot always change what happens to us, but we can always decide how it impacts us.

We are a visual creature.   Choose to go find things that bring you peace, joy, and HOPE in the next moment, next day, next year, and the rest of your life.

May 2010 be a year of incredible blessing, and may it be is such abundance you cannot help but bless those around you.