See Beautiful

Today's See Beautiful post is important to me for it benefits a cause that I support with all my heart - the pet area at St. Anne's homeless shelter - a cause for which our friend Goose has worked so hard. Please read the "See Beautiful" post to see how you can help and consider joining this Blog Hop, hosted by Sugar, who is donating a dollar for every post.

I have to admit that my heart feels heavy tonight for I've been reading the news. So many lives taken and hearts broken... again.

Yet, whenever life seems too onerous for rejoicing, I remind myself of the things that are irreplaceable in my world. My Runner, my dogs, and my little slice of Mother Earth.

The beauty can still shine through, like it did during our trip to the desert in the past month. And, R's ever playful spirit always makes me smile. If you ask R to "take a bow", he has to do it with more pizzazz and for longer than any dog in history. That's our R.

Most afternoons at home, I have a moment of peace and beauty with at least one dog, watching the sun set and the dusky sky. My Angel K used to watch every sunset with me. Shyla is now my daily partner, and some days, the rest of the pack joins us.

No matter what, I know that the Earth keeps rotating and stars create their own art every single night. I once wrote about the first major death in my life, the loss of my mother, and how I somehow believed that her watch would have stopped ticking upon her death. I was utterly and unabashedly surprised to see the second hand still sweeping circles when I gazed at it after she was gone. Indeed, the stars are still making circles in the sky tonight.

Time marches forward. I try, with each day, regardless of the tragedies around me, to See Beautiful.

See Beautiful - A day late

For the past month, I have felt as if I've been floating aimlessly in time, and, true to form, I forgot that yesterday was "See Beautiful" Friday. Thus, I am celebrating seeing beauty a day late. I must admit that, for weeks after K died, I took very few photos of the world around me. Everything looked drab, dark, and colorless. Very gradually, I've started noticing the beauty around me again, a tiny bit at a time.

I ran across this beautiful Native American Prayer that is comforting to me as I remember K and realize that her beautiful spirit is still with me.

I give you this one thought to keep -

I am with you still – I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am sunlight on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awake in the morning’s hush

I am the swift, uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not think of me as gone -

I am with you still – in each new dawn.

I wished that K was with me physically, "covering my back", while I checked a trail camera that had taken incredible photos of a muscular and sinewy mountain lion. This lion is graceful, strong, smart, and beautiful. I am so grateful that a few of these animals survived the scourge of the bounty hunters who tried to wipe them out in the first half of the last century.

Look at the graceful curve of the lion's back...

... and, his powerful shoulders and long neck.

Check out the inquisitive look the lion adopted when he noticed the camera and sniffed the air.

What a beautiful creature. He survives by being invisible to humans while living among us. I love that my remote trail cameras can catch glimpses of his life.

While the mountain lion was visiting my trail camera, I was in the high mountains of Southwestern Colorado, rediscovering their beauty. I must admit that regret was mixed with awe as we gazed at beautiful mountain scenes. The scenes would have been even more beautiful if K had been with us to witness them. One evening, we saw a glorious sunset over a mountain lake.

I think that "seeing beautiful" is a state of mind. Love and beauty go together. I tend to think that things and beings that I love are beautiful. That link has never been more apparent to me than over the past month.