It's a beautiful place, this world in which we reside. Sometimes I really just can't even believe it. Honestly watching the city-lights from the air last night was one of the most beautiful sights I've even seen. The lights looked like tiny jewels laid into an intricate bracelet or necklace, twinkling and glowing in the soft light of a display case.
Now I'm driving with my familia to Louisiana for Thanksgiving. I just finished reading Becoming Chloe (by Catherine Ryan Hyde). It's one of my favorite books of all time, thus far. It chronicles the journey of two kids who've had messed up lives as they search for meaning in a cruel world. They're searching for beauty, and they find it.
This world is just so incredible. I wish I could think of a different word to use for 'beauty' because I feel as though I'm over-using it, but there's honestly no other word that can properly describe this place. Of course there are ugly parts, there's sin and cruelty and badness. That doesn't mean there isn't beauty though. “Nobody said it was a beautiful world with no scars,” Jordan in Becoming Chloe says. And sometimes you need those moments to fully understand and appreciate the other times. It's like Jordy says in his letter to Dr. Reyso, “But now I feel like anybody can think the world is beautiful when it's all going their way. That's just like untested faith. But when you've got one eye swollen shut and you still know it's better than it is bad, then you're onto something...It's a beautiful world, but also a scary one. I used to think something couldn't be both. But then I remembered the point of no return on the Niagara River, and how much it fascinated me as a kid. Because it was just that; beautiful and scary. It's like once you get that sense that there's no real security, that anything at all can happen to you, then every minute you're okay is a joy. Part of the joy is feeling like you can make your way in a world that isn't always easy.” And there's so much beauty, and so much joy in this big world.
“It's such a beautiful world, Jordy. I didn't know. I didn't know it was such a beautiful world. I mean, how could I know? …. What if I'd lived my whole life and never known? Do people live their whole lives and never know?” I wish we all knew! I'm looking out the window and watching the world as we drive by and it's spectacular. The sky is blue, spotted with little puffs of white clouds. The trees are mottled green and red, gold, orange and crimson, brown and yellow. Everything is sharp, clear, crisp with the preparation of a biting winter. The grass is a brilliant green, contrasted by brown fields of crops now ended. The saddest part is realizing that so many people won't, or can't, see this sight as I do. They won't relish the warm sun streaming in the window, highlighting the clouds and trees in a halo of light. They would only see a dying forest, brown and bare. But there's beauty in the circle of life. It's just like Jordy says, “Without her, I might have seen all this and still not known what a beautiful world it is. That I the saddest fate of all.” Truly it is the saddest fate of all.
You have to just live. Sometimes I think we rush through life. All our time is spent trying to find the next best thing, but maybe this is the best thing! The world is full of wonders, so many we can never experience them all. But we should spend every bit of our time soaking in all the beauty and joy and wonder of the world. It's a waste not to. And there are so many perfect moments, moments that would be a life worth living just to experience that one minute or hour or day. Jordan and Chloe climb a mountain. At the top Chloe says, “Even if this is the only thing I ever did in my whole life, it would be worth having a life just to do this.” We should live like that. Experiencing each moment to its fullest, a life worth having.
Another part I just love of this book is noticing the small joys and beauties. An especially striking part is when they're on the mountain. Running into two other hikers, Jordan and Chloe are asked if they've seen anyone else. Jordan says no, Chloe says yes. Confused, Jordan asks Chloe who else she saw, and she says the marmots. He responds that he wasn't counting the marmot. “How can you not count them marmots?” Chloe says. They go to see the Grand Canyon and mountains and the Painted Desert. Hitchhiking to the ocean to ride horses on the beach, Chloe and Jordy meet a very wise ninety year old man. He tells them he's barely scratched the surface of the iceberg of beauty, there's so much no once can ever take it all in. And he reminds them about the little things. “Nothing wrong with the Grand Canyon,” Maximilian says, “Nothing wrong with wanting to see the ocean. Nothing wrong with big beautiful things. But sometimes beauty can be some pretty close work.” The world's a beautiful place, if you just open your eyes and see.
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