Finding Beauty Everywhere

All you have to do is be present

A little peek at a tiny portion of a house built in the 1930s and the lovely barn quilt painted by the owner. Look at the beautiful plants around that cellar window.

When I took Indy on his morning walk I was struck again — like I am every time I take Indy for a walk — that beauty exists everywhere as long as you are present. And by that I mean turn off the podcast, get off the phone, don’t listen to music. Just take that walk (with or without the dog).

My little village of under 500 people has houses and buildings built in every architectural style that passed through this neck of the woods from 1800 to the present. At both ends of that spectrum are my sister’s Greek Revival farmhouse on the edge of the village and what was built across the street from my house — I call the Castle — a stucco-clad building that looks like an impenetrable fortress.

I notice all of the buildings: little school that was called the finest one-story school built in New York State in 1936; the Methodist Church built in the 1870s then moved to it’s current location in 1896 when the village grew in the other direction; the Sears house I owned on a side street; the lavender firehouse-turned-dwelling. I love them all.

I also notice the horse chestnut tree and the dark red rhododendron and the pastel-colored lupine. The white, red, and pink peonies. The red poppies. The purple iris against the green house.

My walks can take a long time.