Beauty in everything

I am a firm believer in the fact that there is beauty in everything. Even people who seem completely awful have some good traits, and even objects that seem ugly have some beauty. Hannah, my sister's daughter, was running around outside the other day, and her shoes were causing her some trouble. They were a little too big and were rubbing blisters on her feet. Hannah has two brothers, so she likes to run around like they do. The only thing she could do was slip off the too-large shoes and run barefoot across the lawn. I watched her do this for awhile, wondering when I lost the ability to spontaneously remove my shoes and run through the grass. I keep thinking something like that might be fun, but it wouldn't be a proper thing for an adult to do. Before I started my current job, it was pretty common to see me in town or at a movie wearing a t-shirt and some jeans. I don't dress that way anymore. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

So I sat there watching the 2 year old Hannah running through the grass and made a decision. I slipped off my shoes, glanced down the road both ways, and ran across the lawn. As I scooped her up and twirled her around, I felt years younger. We twirled around for awhile, until I started feeling dizzy and slightly ill. So that was the end of my experiment. I snapped the above picture as I was lying on the ground (because of being dizzy) because I wanted to remember what it felt like to run through the grass without my shoes. I have decided to start doing unexpected things a lot more often. It'll make life more interesting and enjoyable. So these shoes are beautiful to me, because they remind me that it's okay to go without shoes sometimes. It's okay to act like a kid. It's a very bad idea to get so wrapped up in being an adult that we forget to enjoy life the way a child does.