Waiting to be noticed

“… and it happens every day,” he said as we stood on the moors watching the miracle of a sunrise. We had watched the sun set too the night before. Two moments of sheer beauty… There is no reason for sunrises and sunsets…. I am not speaking scientifically, though science only gives an explanation; no real reason why the creation of the world should hold such unnecessary beauty…. why the sky should be painted with fire and gold every day, or why mists should shroud the valleys in so much softness, or frost encase the world in crystalline loveliness.

These things are natural processes with a scientific basis we can explain. But why so much beauty? Why is the world such a breathtakingly lovely place? Why do we get the miracle of a gilded sky or the softness of summer rain sparkling on the grass?

Even stranger… why do we so often fail to see the beauty… or the miracle it holds? Our cities hide our skylines, it is true… but the stars shine, the clouds are always there, the daisies still scatter the grass… there is always something, if we look. Yet so often we do not see.

We don’t always see the beauty in each other either. Many things pass unnoticed, taken for granted… like dawn and sunset… we see, but don’t see. Events register, but we are so busy moving through our lives that we don’t always truly take the time to understand the depth of the gifts we are given daily by those around us.

It may be something as simple as a smile… or as deep as understanding. It might be the quiet act of courage that faces a difficult situation… the care that makes us aware of each other…. or a hand extended to help us over a rough patch. They are all gifts that can often be more costly to the giver than we realise. They demand that the self is put to one side, that others… their needs and well-being…. are more important to us than our own. And they happen every day, small miracles of human kindness… of humanity.

Maybe that is why the sky flames for us every day… to remind us to look up, to look out of our own inner world and see the beauty all around and within us, just waiting to be noticed.