I made this photo Saturday at the Aldridge Botanical Gardens, (Located in Birmingham, a beautiful 30-acre site showcasing hydrangeas and picturesque gardens. Now open to the public, and free of charge).  As I sat near this brook, I was reminded of my grandmother, Margaret Turner Smith.  She was my mother’s mother and was blinded at birth.  She never saw such a sight like this.  She never saw a Dragon Fly dancing around a lily pad; or a butterfly resting on a gorgeous flower.   Yet, she had a great capacity for enjoying what she did have.

If she could have been setting there with me, I believe she would have enjoyed it more than I did.  She would not have been handicapped by her sight.   She would have heard a hundred more things that I was too busy to pause and hear;  Smelled the perfumes of the flowers that I never noticed, felt the breeze as it kissed her cheek.   I believe often we fail to sense the real beauty all around us simply because we are too busy.  Here we are, surrounded by stunning things and  remarkable people and we are blind to their charms.  Why?  We are too busy to slow down and take notice.

Your task today, if you choose to accept it is:  Appreciate the many beautiful things all around you.  Use more than your eyes to enjoy the people and things in your world today.  Listen, touch, feel, hug, taste, kiss, smell and Look.  You might be surprised what you have been overlooking.

Something to think about:

• Drop thy still dews of quietness,
  Till all our strivings cease;
  Take from our souls the strain and stress,
  And let our ordered lives confess
  The beauty of thy peace.  -  John Greenleaf Whittier

• The question is not what a man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love and value and appreciate.  -  John Ruskin

• To be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars—to be satisfied with your possessions but not contented with yourself until you have made the best of them—to despise nothing in the world except falsehood and meanness, and to fear nothing except cowardice—to be governed by your admirations rather than by your disgusts; to covet nothing that is your neighbor’s except his kindness of heart and gentleness of manners—to think seldom of your enemies, often of your friends, and every day of Christ—these are little guideposts on the footpath to peace.  -  Henry Van Dyke

Your joyful buddy

Rickey Moore