# 12 ~ Beauty

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BEAUTY

I am grateful for beauty.

So, the word 'beauty' is one of my favorite words. I have several favorite words, all because of their meaning. Several years ago, when I was looking up the exact definition of some of my favorite words, I found this definition for the word beauty...

~ Beauty: that which delights the senses and exalts the mind ~

Think about that... I love it. (In fact, I loved that definition enough that I embroidered it and framed it... no joke... I know I am a nerd.)


The reason I wanted to share my gratitude for beauty today is because of a few experiences I had yesterday by being aware of the beauty around me. The photos in this posting were all taken yesterday. I had my camera with me (a common thing) and I happened to stop at my sister Lisa's house for just a minute. As I was getting back into the car to leave, I looked over at her yard and saw all of the leaves that had fallen to the ground from one of her trees. They were amazing. So, I grabbed my camera and snapped several photos. SO beautiful.

After I left there, another sister, Lori, who had also just been at Lisa's house called me and said that she had pulled over on the street above Lisa's house because they saw some deer in the trees there. So, I pulled over behind them and grabbed my camera again and snapped several photos. Also, SO beautiful.

After I was done there, Aaron and I stopped at my parents' house for a little while. As we were leaving, I was pulling out of their driveway and looked out over the valley and the Great Salt Lake. The sunset / sky was simply AMAZING. I again grabbed my camera and snapped several photos, then as I drove away, I called my parents to tell them to look out their window at the beautiful scene. They loved it. Again, SO beautiful.

In this chaotic world around me, if I pay attention, I can find beauty in places where I might have never expected or might have not noticed. I love seeking out beauty and trying to capture it. Playing off of what I wrote about yesterday, I love the challenge of seeking out beauty in the world around me and then the challenge of capturing it in a photo so that others can experience it as well. This is another reason I love photography... AND this is the reason I have thousands of photos sitting on disks and on an external hard drive just waiting for me to edit and put on my photo blog. Literally, bthousands... of anything / anyone. Beautiful moments or scenes that I wanted to try to capture so that I could revisit it over and over and over... and also share it.

There is beauty in the most pure and simple places. Sometimes it is obvious and sometimes we have to seek it out. But it is there. By simply being aware of the beauty around me, I am able to enjoy life more fully because I force myself to slow down and capture it.

I cannot help but be grateful to our Father in Heaven for the creations of beauty that He has blessed us with.

Beauty comes in all forms, shapes, sizes, ways, and colors... each of us sees beauty in different things. Beauty doesn't have to be things we see with our eyes or even be tangible... beauty can also be felt. Beauty can also be things we feel with our hearts, hear with our ears, etc. There can be beautiful things, beautiful people, beautiful personalities, beautiful spirits, beautiful kindnesses, beautiful gestures, beautiful sermons, beautiful words, beautiful sounds, beautiful feelings, beautiful anythings and everythings...

So today, I am SO grateful to God for beauty... beauty that delights my senses and exalts my mind.

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My photo blog, Pure and Simple Beauty, is another place where I share how I feel about beauty and share some of the beauty I have captured with my camera. It totally needs to be updated... hopefully I will get that done soon. :)

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