Healthy Dose of Beauty

It's so easy to focus on what's wrong in my life; the bad things that happen, the frustrating moments, the anger, the hatred, the pain, the... you get the picture. I think that's why a healthy dose of beauty every day helps a lot.

I remember telling my therapist that I knew I was feeling better because I was playing the piano and singing again. I hadn't really sung/played since we had moved here, and about 2-3 months after starting the meds/therapy again, I was sitting down and letting music back into my life. The simple beauty of the music made a world of difference in speeding up my recovery, too.

Here's some more (recent) beauty and wonderful-ness:

*A really fun double-date with some friends on Friday

*Stumbling across this at bedtime and letting them stay up a bit longer rather than being upset at the mess:

*Singing in the ward choir

*Watching our youth present in Sacrament Meeting, yesterday (not the Primary --they'll do their program next week!), seeing my husband accompany one of the songs they sang, and listening to #1 speak, knowing that her entire talk was researched and prepared only by herself, and getting weepy when I saw how much she's grown. (And the truth is, I love watching my husband whenever he conducts Sacrament Meeting. I wish he was sitting with me, but there's something wonderful about observing him so easily.)

*Starting rehearsals for the Stake Messiah Sing-a-long, which will be next month (so excited!) and seeing this sunset sky on the way there (usually our sunset views are blocked by all the trees):

*This Autumn Day (today!):

*Finding this caterpillar, who had made it all they way across the road without being squished or eaten, and watching him finish his journey to the safety on the other side (do you see him?):

*Hearing new words uttered by the 2 year old that sound like actual words!

*Reading Night by Elie Wiesel, again, and weeping for the evil of men, but expressing gratitude for those who overcome.

*Seeing my girls start to branch out more (they're both joining Drama Club).

*Realizing that crying now-a-days really just comes with the pregnancy hormones. I'm not wanting to make light of bi-polar disorder (because it's serious), but I feel like I'm multi-polar while pregnant. My moods are all over the place! I cry at everything. I'm pretty sure I was like this with the others, too, but I can't remember: pregnancy brain, you know. Anyway, I don't feel badly about this. I just let the feelings come and go and try to maintain some sense of patience until they pass!

What beauty and wonderful things have you seen, lately?