Life is Beautiful
(written 5/26/09)

Isn't it funny how if you take the contrast out of a photograph, you're left with a practically blank piece of paper?

In order for beauty to be at its finest, there has to be a healthy dose of contrast...not too much, not too little. I've often been the girl that says 'Bring it on!' to bad days and I found truth in a friend's comment in college that things are most perfect when they're not. But I know in life at times I still tend to think that life could be most perfect without the difficulties...and I'm wrong in that thought. Life is most beautiful when it has a balance of ups and downs, struggles and successes...just like a photograph with contrast. Shadows help define shapes and characters, and add richness, dimension, and depth.

I'm so grateful for the sunshine AND the shade in my life ...for the billowy white fluffy clouds high in the sky AND for those low-hanging gray clouds that blanket the world and drop life-sustaining moisture to the earth.

Funny how our perspectives can be the biggest source of our pain. I'm discovering that blessings can be quietly disguised as frustrations...they sit patiently enduring our misjudgement of them. How often have I never seen the blessing in the frustration? And how often have I chosen to define the change in brightness as shadow or glare instead of shade and light?

I'm so grateful for the wisdom I learned at a young age...to listen to and follow my heart. We can't always see things for what they really are, but somehow our hearts often know...and I'm grateful that I've learned to listen to mine even when it makes no 'sense'. I have always had greatest peace when I do that, and these past years have been no exception.

I love knowing that God is real even though I can't see Him, and that I am His child even though I have never physically felt Him take me by the hand.

Seeing is definitely not everything.

And life....life is beautiful. Contrast included.