looking for beauty

It is easy to be seduced by nature's beauty when,with wild laughter,Spring is prancing around twirling her veils of daffodil yellow, Japanese cherry pink and Dogwood startling white.But how about the dreary grey and brown of today ?There is a mysterious drab fog in the woods.
As I gaze out the window,nothing stands out to catch my eye.

Perhaps the problem is the gazing with lazy vision ,with no intent of finding.My granddaughter,last Christmas ,found beauty in the crack of a sidewalk and an ice covered weed.She took the picture attached which I treasure and see through her eyes.

In January of 2007, I ordered a journal book called Pausing for Beauty.It has pages with spaces for writing,poems on the edges and a calendar.On each date,I entered something of the beauty that I had seen that day:"a patch of blue after much rain,pansies yellow faces in a grey bird bath,a John Muir quote,the poster at the conference showing Northern lights, marsh birds calling and in flight."

As I type this,I see and hear it again because once I took the time to look and write about it.

My journal says this about January:January is named for Janus the Roman god of doors and gateways.The original Roman calendar consisted of 10 months,304 days.The Romans originally considered winter a month less period.

Well, what does that mean,that it is a throwaway month because there is grey fog in the woods? This journal was my gateway to looking and living deeply,January.

On the second page I wrote this:"Today,if the world ended it would have been enough.To see the pines sway,other bare tree branches against the sky,the brilliant red of the bird....to have memories of summer nights at play under the maples.To have loved deeply and completely and have run with the wind....the laughter of children at play, and hugs at the end of the day.Some men live lives of quiet exultation,one must find out how."

I found a hint today.