Find beauty, right where it is, without your own design, creation or interference. It’s right in front of your eyes, if you take the time to see it. Spotting glimpses of the earth’s elegance is a powerful starting point, for forming lasting memories that leave you filled with gratitude. First things first. Pause. Use your senses – a necessary first step to discovering what is beautiful in this world.

Take just a minute, to take it all in. When you are open to slowing down, and noticing the color and the design that nature is quietly throwing at you, when you get to the heart of your own experience of natural beauty, when you are unexpectedly taken aback you’ll have a story to share, something to hold on to, so show some gratitude.

Express gratitude for a natural process of growth and evolution that results is this delicate charm, artistry, style and grace. Express gratitude for that edgy burst of red-hot fire, the quite whisper of powder blue sky, and the slippery wet droplets after a gentle rain. Express more gratitude, out loud so everyone can hear it, for your ability have this experience.

Use Your Senses:

If you live in a beautiful place, celebrate it in all its smallest, intricate details. If you work near a beautiful place, take the time to go there – put a real, hour-long lunch break on your overbooked calendar, and allow yourself the luxury of experiencing the beauty just outside of your office door.

If you’re having trouble finding a beautiful place, to rest and recharge, look harder. Or, ask around – find someone who has what you want, and ask them where they found it. Ask them how they saw the beauty that was around them all along, right in their front yard. . . or back yard. . . or across the street at the neighbor’s place. . . or in that public park the city invested in, just around the corner.

They will likely tell you that you simply need to open your eyes to it.

Take it In:

Give yourself the time, as much as you need, or as much as you can afford, to breathe in the sweetly scented air, to witness the faint, orange tint on the edges of the fluffy white and pink cotton candy clouds, to feel the gravity of the impending storm, deep in your bones.

You can’t hurry things – you can’t just place yourself in a setting and expect to absorb all that positive energy all at once. Slow yourself down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . just a little more. . . . . . . . . . . . . . pause. . . . . . . . . . . . . . take it all in! Breathe deeply, then do it again. Maybe 5 or 6 times, to settle in. The sounds will amplify, the colors will deepen, and the cool grass under your bare feet will ground you.

Feel the slight breeze that gives a gentle lift to the hair that brushes the nape of your neck. Listen for the ‘tick-tick-tick’ of the neighbor’s garden sprinkler, timed to kick on at dusk. Listen a little harder, and you’ll hear a family of rabbits scurrying away, to a drier spot under the hedge line. Wait. . . listen a while longer. The crickets have stated chirping their nightly call, and the fireflies are now lighting up tiny specks of the night sky. Be in the moment.

Form Lasting Memories:

If you’re fully in the moment, then you’re already memory making. But there are days when it seems harder and harder to bring these short, vivid moments to mind. Take note, in the Moleskine notebook that you’ve been filling up, night after night, one page at a time. Use your very best camera (the one that’s with you) to capture details that your visual memory might leave out, or forget all together, or make up later. (note: those imagined, recreated, fantastical pseudo-memories can also be a lot of fun, so write those down too!)

If the moment is fleeting, consider recording the sounds or making a video, so you can relive them. Realize that you may never have time to relive these moments, because you’ll be so busy getting out there to experience new ones. But maybe you will find the time, one day.

We have such strong olfactory associations that a simple scent of lavender or tea rose might bring the entire scene to mind. Place a drop of lavender oil on your wrist, or into your new infuser, to fill your home with the familiar scent. Find yourself back in the moment, and find a way, some way, to make record of this unique experience.

Express Gratitude:

Sometimes a simple “Thank You!” will do.

Join me on my next adventure,

~ Kat

Related Links

Clintonville, OH: https://www.columbus.gov/areacommissions/clintonville/

Plant Snap – What Flower is This?: https://www.plantsnap.com/blog/instant-flower-identification/

The Cloud Collector’s Handbook: https://www.amazon.com/Cloud-Collectors-Handbook-Gavin-Pretor-Pinney/dp/0811875423

Olfactory Memory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olfactory_memory