Last summer there was a large fire near our home. Ash rained down for weeks. We had to put plastic up on all our windows. We stayed indoors to avoid the smoke and ash.
The plants in your yard weren’t so lucky, and they suffered. By the end of the summer, my pink hydrangea was a dried heap of sticks. I almost pulled it out and started over. However, Andy, my husband, said to wait. He is usually the optimistic person in our partnership, and this moment wasn’t any different.

So, we watered it.
And watered it.
And watered it.

First, it was the leaves that came back. Then, suddenly last week- blooms! They were tiny at first, and slowly the big beautiful bunches of flowers that hydrangea is known for filled the bush.

Beauty. I don’t always see it. Sometimes it takes someone else to come in and share their view.

I have been reading Beauty by John O’Donohue. This quote jumped out to me.

“We have often heard the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. This is usually taken to mean the sense of beauty is utterly subjective; there is no accounting for the taste because each person’s taste is different. The statement has another, more subtle meaning: if our style of looking becomes beautiful, then beauty will become visible and shine forth for us. We will be surprised to discover beauty in unexpected places where the ungraceful eye would never linger. The graced eye can glimpse beauty anywhere, for beauty does not reserve itself for special elite moments or instances; it does not wait for perfection but is present already secretly in everything. When we beautify your gaze, the grace of hidden beauty becomes our joy and sanctuary. “

The graced eye can glimpse beauty anywhere.

In the ash. In the seemingly dead bush. In the year of surviving a pandemic.

I want that graced eye that doesn’t wait for the flowers, but sees them before they bloom. I want to see what is already secretly in everything,.

Keep searching for beauty.
~Staci Kennelly