Finding Beauty 

Recently, during the middle of the world wide pandemic,  I headed out with Izzy, my 14 year old Yorki-poo. If she could talk I’m sure she’d say she is delighted with the shelter-at-home orders. We’re always home and she gets lots of walks.  

My favorite place and certainly most convenient to walk is the small deserted campus of a Catholic College across the street and down from where I live in Grand Rapids.  It’s a small school, nothing fancy, with a few vintage academic buildings, a very modern library, wonderful theater in the round used by the college and a couple of other institutions in town.  

The leafy green lined road around the campus meanders and in the middle there’s a small stand of trees, all wonderfully labeled, making it perfect for a source of leaves for a project  that middle schoolers in our town have to do during normal times.  

As I walked along, I passed a young woman with a camera around her neck.  She had long blond hair and was wearing a red sweater and smiled at me.  Needing some conversation, I said, “Oh how nice that you are out taking pictures.  What kind of camera do you have?”  

Photographers love to talk about their equipment. 

Our conversation continued, at a respectful six foot distance, about the merits of her Nikon DSLR and the features of my mirror-less Olympus, stashed at home in its camera bag.  

We both commented that taking pictures can be therapeutic.  

I thought to myself, “I should do that. Maybe it would help settle the constant turmoil in my head and stomach.”  I’m searching for ways to find calm.  

Then  one of my favorite e-newsletters showed up with the headline: 

Finding Beauty in a Broken World

I thought about the young woman and my need to find peace of mind.  Maybe I could calm my soul  through the lens of my camera. 

To exercise my creative muscle I looked through my library of photo favorites.  I am posting a few of them here.  

My goal is to get out daily and capture the “Beauty in a Broken World.”   If you’d like to share in this project, please go to my DesignDestinations Facebook page and post your images. 

Here’s the Facebook link

I’ve been thinking……..

I’d like to end this post with a quote from Maria Shriver’s blog on Easter. Her weekly blog is called  “I’ve been thinking……”  

She described some items in her bedroom and ended with these sentences.   

 “The clock was a gift. It reminds me every day that my time is precious. That I am not in control and that tomorrow is not guaranteed. Being grateful for the now is the best use of my time, be it on Easter Sunday or any day of the week.”