Accidental Beauty

We love our backyard.  It is such a place of peace for our family.  At any given time, you might find one or more of the six of us laying on the hammock, sitting by the fire pit, enjoying the serenity of the deck in the evening or swinging on the play set.  It is our place.  Nestled against a deep tree line with plenty of perfect fort locations and a creek, we are secluded, for the most part, from our neighbors and their yards. 

One thing we love about our yard is all the birds we have visit our feeders.  We have seen bright red cardinals, blue jays, nuthatches and a few we haven't yet identified.  By far, our favorites are the hummingbirds.  My neighbors will tell you that I stole all the hummingbirds from them.  For some reason, they just love our yard.  There are so many, you might get dive bombed by a couple tiny but aggressive females.

This summer, we got a pleasant surprise under our bird feeder.  After several weeks of refilling the seed, we began to see what we thought were weeds growing among the day lilies.  Being the not gardener that I am, I let them go.  One day, we were greeted by a sweet sunflower.  The seeds had been dropped by the birds and took root in our unkept patch of landscaping. 

It was accidental beauty.  Beauty that we didn't try to cultivate or force.  I am learning to appreciate these moments of accidental beauty more and more.  It is the small moments that make up our lives.  An older brother holding the hand of the youngest, suits and towels lined up on the porch rail after a fun day at the pool, spontaneous "thank yous" and "I'm sorries".  The things we take for granted and the things we don't notice are the very things in our lives that can make all the difference.

Take a deep breath, look around and open your eyes up to the moments in your life.  If you can, snap a picture of it or write it down in a journal.  Then, on the days when you wonder if it all is worth it, be reminded of those small moments of unforced, simple, accidental beauty.