One mother was reminded of this simple truth the other day as she watched her 10-month-old son play with a tennis ball on the kitchen floor.  He would pick up and throw the ball, then crawl to where it had rolled.  She was delighted to watch him learn how the ball worked and what he had to do to continue this little game he was playing with himself.  

Then, the two dogs who share their home with this new “little creature” came into the picture as they realized that, yet another of “their toys” had been taken over.  Now, the dogs USED to be “the babies” until “the baby” came along, and they have been slowly but surely accepting him for 10 months now. 

When the mother saw the dogs approaching, her thought was, “I guess I’ll have to pick the baby up and the game will end.”  However, she watched with joy as her son and two dogs took turns playing with the ball!  The boy continued throwing the ball, but instead of him “fetching” after it, the dogs did the work. The boy and dogs quickly learned their roles in the game and for the first time since the baby was born, the mother sat and watched the three of them play, in unity…and all because of a ball.

So, the next time you see a simple ball-think unity!  Is unity beautiful?…YOU BET!!!! 
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In response to the survey question, "What sorts of things do you collect?," one beautiful woman wrote, "I collect dust." She was referring to the busyness of life impeding her ability to keep up with dusting that top shelf in her living room. We get it. Life is busy. Life is also beautiful.

Is it possible that a thin layer of dust every now and then might be reminding us that we have better things to do with our lives than dust?

Thought: Perhaps those dust bunnies peeking at you from behind the television aren't mocking you, but celebrating the fact that you're busy enjoying life. So, the next time you see dust collecting in crevasses of your home, you might just smile as you retrieve your trusty ole' feather duster. It means you're a dust collector.
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And being a dust collector means you see beautiful.

When you pass potatoes in the grocery store, how often do you pause to think, "Beautiful."? Perhaps they are...
The following quote, found in  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was shared by a See Beautiful™ reader. While she was reading, this passage reminded her of our mission (and we were thrilled that it jumped out at her!).
​"In every nook, I find little things that tell me about her.  She was a noticer, Sidney, like me, for all the shelves are lined with shells, bird feathers, dried sea grasses, pebbles, eggshells, and the skeleton of something that might be a bat.  They're just bits that were lying on the ground, that anyone else would step over or on, but she saw they were beautiful and brought them home." (pg. 166)
There are several reasons why this passage, book, and the Hot Potato! game itself can help us see beautiful:

1. The passage: Like a potato, many people step over or pass by truly beautiful aspects of life without noticing. Today, you might look for something beautiful that many have already walked over. Take a moment to explore why the seemingly insignificant is truly exquisite. 
2. The book: Without describing the plot of the book, one of the beautiful pieces is the underlying theme validating the benefits of social support structures as a necessity. Human interaction and friendship offer hope and strength to survive the daily ins-and-outs of troubled times. This might remind you of the Socks for Japan effort noted in the blog last week. The simple act of offering socks brought a glimmer of hope to the lives of those who desperately needed it.
3. The Game:  You might remember the Hot Potato! game to be high-pressure and fast, but we think the premise of the game is beautiful: Just as quickly as you receive the potato, you have to give it away. What if we applied this strategy in aspects of our lives? What if, without much thought, giving was automatic and innate? With all we receive, we give. Further, there's no strategy to Hot Potato! besides giving away the potato. There's really no strategy to giving in life either. It's quite simply a beautiful thing to give.

Perhaps those potatoes sitting in the grocery store really are our opportunity to see beautiful. Perhaps they're our reminder to give, without thinking, and with the enthusiasm of a giddy five-year-old playing a hysterical game.

A few years ago a beautiful woman coined the term "a happy" for out-of-the-blue gifts (or "happy's") she would give to people. If you were the recipient, you didn't expect it, though it most certainly made you feel loved. While shopping, if she noticed something that made her think of someone else, "a happy" was discovered. Many "happy" recipients started doing the same thing in a "Pay It Forward" sort of movement. "A Happy" doesn't have to cost money. It could be the simple act of leaving a "thinking about you" or "have a great day" post-it note message on a co-worker's door or picking flowers from your yard for a friend or neighbor. It could mean leaving a "thank you" note in your mailbox for your mailman/mailwoman, or leaving a little extra tip for your server when you're out to eat.

Thank you to our See Beautiful™ contributing author, Lindsay Criss McCollum, who provided the See Beautiful Post for today.

"One of our Canadian friends is decorating her newborn baby's room with postcards from loved ones living around the world. It's a terrific idea to surround a child with images of people and places from foreign lands. Even better is the idea to surround a child with loving notes from friends on the back of such images. Surely the collection of postcards the baby receives will be special to her when she gets older. It's a wonder how the images and messages will influence her as she grows and learns about the world herself.

After choosing a card of Vienna to send to the baby, the daily routine of passing hundreds of postcards on the streets of Vienna is different now somehow. While no longer annoying obstacles to dodge, they have become thinking posts. Each card is now something to consider. One wonders, who will buy the card? What will be written on it? Who will receive it? And what influence will it have? Sure, there is the chance that it might not have much of an influence at all. But, considering the power that a postcard does have is quite beautiful isn't it?"
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This is a postcard received  from the See Beautiful™ contributor herself:

It is only fitting that the first post regarding "seeing beautiful" include children, laughter, and creativity. If you haven't yet had the treat to watch the video, Kittens Inspired by Kittens, well, get ready to smile, laugh, and perhaps if you're laughing as hard as many I know did, even cry. If you have seen the video, you're in great company. I can never watch this enough and it makes me appreciate the following things that are beautiful:

• Children
• Children's Creativity
• Laughter
• Reading
• Inspiration
• Parent(s) who can stop and capture beauty when they see it

The purpose of this blog is to invite readers to see beautiful. Too often, we see sadness or we're too busy to really "see" at all. Pop culture would like us to think beauty exists in, or is defined by, reality t.v. shows or magazine covers. Bad news overwhelmingly occupies daily story lines and newspaper headings. In an effort to capture some of the beauty that exists at every moment all over the world, this blog will highlight some of it.