The Beautiful

 I looked out the window

to find the sun setting in the west...

 creating cloud mountains in the east.

Glowing purple and yellow and orange,

radiant puffy cloud mountains,

like sorbet piled up on top of the world.

Then the birds came.

Soaring high up in heaven, dipping through the air

intentionally, freely...gracefully,

they called to each other their night song.

I flew with them in my mind,

through my camera lens I flew.

Sometimes I stare at things that are beautiful...

I think because I can't quite understand it.

Then there is the part of me that stares because I know all of it.

Beauty is terrifying because when it's truly beautiful,

authentically beautiful,

it changes. 

A river rising and bubbling and freezing...changes.

Trees stand still, sometimes bend....lose their covers...them magically knit together new ones. 

They change.

The sky...sunshine breaking through black...then to blue, back to orange...and then black

glowing with moonlight.

It changes.

We do too I guess.

When you are beautiful,

you grow...in every possible way.

Your heart gets bigger, kinder, gentler...when you are truly growing towards beauty.

Your hair silvers with the natural way of things,

lines streak  away from your eyes and hug your mouth...

It's beautiful when we see it as the way it's suppose to be.

My children grow...everyday breaking my heart just a little bit more that they are almost gone.

I know there is still time and that they will always be "mine."

Things will change though...they already have.

They are taking more time to themselves then every before.

Their little bodies aren't really that little,

Brady's feet are almost the same size as mine.

In two years, he will be looking me in the eye.

I guess that will be part of the beauty though,

being able to be nose to nose,

looking in each other's freckled faces and knowing that we are friends.

I looked out the window at my world...

and knew it wasn't something to be taken for granted.

It's changing, each day equally valuable,

each moment important.

Every sunset, no matter how golden or blue or purple or nothing...

is another sunset. 

Everyday is another opportunity to find beauty in the changing,

and not stand still,

except of course...

when the soul needs to take in the splendid.

Then by all means

Be Still.