Good morning, Team! It’s Friday!

This is really about perspective. As I walked around my neighborhood today, I could have taken pictures of the dying weeds sitting in the gutter, the flat frog remains in the street or the porta-potty’s set up by the temporary storage for the roof replacement crew dispatched after the recent hail storm.

Instead, I chose to snap shots of natural beauty all around us. Not one in a hundred would pick me out of a crowd as one who appreciates blooming flowers. Hell, even when I was a kid and someone took a dandelion and held it under my chin, I didn’t give any sense that I liked yellow, butter, or dandelions.

We see … what we choose to see. This applies to our physical environment (like flowers versus frog guts) but I’m learning, way too late in life, that there is beauty EVERYWHERE. God made all of it. Some of it seems tragic and as humans we struggle understanding the value of death and disaster. Just because we can’t understand it doesn’t mean it’s wrong, unjust or inhumane.

For instance, hurricane Harvey is pounding Houston with rain and wind. Flooding has already made things horrible and as of Sunday night, it’s predicted to get worse this week. Adversity has a place in the circle of life and it sucks when we go through it but how better to gain appreciation for better times.

Beyond the physical attributes, I think the more interesting beauty lies within each of us. We are each a miracle and despite our imperfections, our little hearts beat and our timid souls awake each day to another miracle sunrise we are blessed to experience. Most of us are way too busy to fully appreciate the beauty because we race to work to get another task completed to move the needle one tick forward. As it pertains to people, we compare what we perceive other’s lives to be with what we know ours to be.

Diversity is beauty. We are not all alike, but we are all similar. We bleed, we feel, we strive, we aspire, we love, we learn, we hurt and we heal.

Open your eyes to beauty, your heart to others, your mind to infinite possibilities and your soul to everyone who crosses your path.

Have a blessed and long Labor Day weekend!