There Is Beauty In It

Isn't this pretty?

I took it on my deck last night.

I bet you think I have a beautiful deck.

I sure was able to take an awfully pretty picture there, and everyone knows the camera doesn't lie.

That picture was taken with a macro-lens focusing in very closely on a tiny little part of this:

That's right. To the embarrassment of everyone in my family and, no doubt, the chagrin of many of my neighbors, weeds grow right up through my deck. It is wild and ugly and out of control.

Kind of like my life has been recently.

And yet -- when you take the time to look really, really closely -- just like the weeds on my deck -- there is beauty in it.

At first glance, it's a mess. Things that I do not nurture or welcome are growing and tangling around themselves and ensnaring everything in their path. They are manipulating the environment and dominating it. I cut them down, but they come back. They render me helpless.

Things only make sense when I slow down and accept them for what they are -- when I take the time to sort through the mess and magnify and emphasize the tiny instances of unexpected beauty.

Because they are there.

They are always, always, always there.