find beauty in unexpected places

Awhile back, I was out on a Friday night with a few friends. Walking back to the car, we walked past this closed piano shop, and we noticed an old, unlocked piano sitting right outside the store. Something about randomly busting out into song in public in the company of a bunch of geeky friends while everybody else is out drinking and dancing just makes you feel so alive inside.

I went for a walk yesterday because I felt quite angry with my family. They all have important things to do, which means that I end up doing all the cleaning shopping cooking laundry… And I just help them… and then my husband makes me feel a failure because he adds to the stress by asking me to go skiffing (a kind of rowing) which I only enjoy when everything else is “finished”.

In this resentful frame of mind I found the print of a leaf on the pavement. I think that we all know that autumn leaves are beautiful, but I was very moved by the shape of the leaf, just a damp shape on the pavement; an acer leaf, very graceful.

So I stopped to look at it thinking: there is a message for you from this beautiful thing.

And after a while it came to me that the shape we leave behind is important. For when the leaf has blown away, for a while it leaves something behind; a memento of its grace.

at finding beauty in expected places, eg. certain young men…

Thanks to you for this wonderful moment..

I felt good after taking this photo.

after visiting the church the other day. I couldn’t help taking this photo coz the scene really captivated me.

I accidentally discovered one when I was on my way to the riverside in one part of the city. Wow!
Then I made sure to pay a visit in the morning of 9-11. The feeling was simply glorious while inside! Love it!

My evening plans entailed having a friend keep me company while I housesit, and watching episodes of Scrubs on their awesome surround sound entertainment system after I got everything taken care of for tonight. Lo and behold, as we arrived at the house, the power was out. The power – stayed – out for about 4 hours.

I thought we would be bored out of our minds waiting for the power to come back on. Turns out, a power outage is the perfect time waver back and forth between having a thought-provoking spiritual discussion and playing immature and vulgar games.

We even managed to get in 2 episodes of Scrubs after the power came back on.

Recently, my choir toured Europe. We spent 12 days/10 nights touring Salzburg, Vienna, and Prague.

In Salzburg, I would get up early in the morning and take a walk around the hotel before getting breakfast. One morning, I walked into a bakery slightly beyond the tourist realm where the hotel was located. I busted out my phrasebook, and after a sloppy German conversation with the cashier, I walked out with what I wanted. My spirits boosted, I decided to get away from the touristy locations with English-speaking employees and see how well I could manage among the natives.

Let me say, the Austrians I encountered in Salzburg were so nice. Where I live, people don’t look each other in the eye when you walk down the street, even if it’s someone you know. When I was walking around in Salzburg, dozens of people I’ve never met in my life would smile at me and say “Guten morgen.” They were all so genuine and sweet.

What should have been a 20 minute walk wound up taking me 2 hours. Eventually, I started to inadvertantly walk in circles. There were certain buildings and landmarks that I must have passed about 3 or 4 times. But in getting lost, I took some of my most gorgeous pictures.

It also rained for about 80% of my walk. Normally, I hate the rain. Can’t stand it. Walking around in damp clothes is uncomfortable and depressing. But just having that time to myself and being among such gorgeous surroundings made it so that a small thing like the weather had absolutely no affect on my mood.

I’ve always had this feeling about him, that he’s a special person. When I look at him I just smile so gratefully that he exists at all. I don’t know why: he seems to be at peace with hemself, or something. He has dreadful acne, but he has something that makes me register his presence as a beautiful thing.