Globetrotters Monthly Challenge

Floral Beauty — It Doesn’t Need To Be Majestic To Be Beautiful

The beauty of tiny wildflowers

I was in Killarney, walking towards One Tree Hill and contemplating the topic of this month’s Globetrotters challenge. The Northern Hemisphere is getting into Spring; nature is waking up after long winter sleep, trees and bushes are decorated with blossoms, fields resemble colourful carpets, and gardens are spectacular mosaics of shapes and colours.

On the contrary, we in the Land Down Under are getting into winter, so nature isn’t as spectacular as in spring.

I know I don’t have to travel now. I could write a post about my past travel and share some photos from those trips, but… I rarely photograph flowers. Mainly, I capture the beauty of the terrain, so though I travelled in spring in the past, and I even went to Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers once, I won’t have many photos of plants. And taking into account the terabytes of photos I have, there is no way I would now be able to find any fitting this topic quickly.

And so I kept walking, then and again looking at my phone, wondering if maybe some of the photos would fit this challenge. And then I pondered what it actually means “to travel”? Globetrotters is a wonderful pub for travellers, which accepts only travel posts, but do I need to go far away and stay there overnight? Would day trips in my surroundings count? Could snapshots taken during my work travel be accepted? (Isn’t it fascinating how we can overthink everything?)

While walking, I suddenly noticed all the tiny plants I was passing, and I couldn’t help but laugh. I’m so silly. I’m walking through this magnificent scenery, surrounded by the delicate beauty of nature, and instead of enjoying it and capturing the wonders of the moment, I’m looking at my phone, contemplating what it means to travel. That’s crazy!

This made me realize how often, in life, we pursue perfection. We are so brainwashed through media and marketing campaigns that whatever we do, we seek “non-existing perfection”, thinking that otherwise, we won’t fit in; we won’t be good enough. We overthink the simplest situation, afraid that maybe, for whatever reason, we don’t deserve to be noticed, included, or happy.

I kept walking, but I changed my attitude. I stopped looking at my phone and sighted around me. Suddenly, I discovered all the little beauty surrounding me.

Among all the greenery, delicate and somehow intricate blossoms were waiting for me to discover their glamour and share it with the world. It was as if they wanted to teach me a lesson “You search for all the glamour far away, but you don’t notice all the beauty surrounding you. You long for the distant countries, but you don’t notice that all you need or want now is around you”.

Step by step, click by click, I captured more and more unique beauty. I was stunned by what I discovered. “I walked this path yesterday and the day before, and I didn’t notice anything but endless green fields, yet so much beauty is hiding here”, I thought to myself.

This made me think even more about life — how often do we walk through life with our eyes closed? We lament what we are missing, yet we do not see all we are spoiled with.

And the same is about travel. We long to see faraway countries, and we are desperate to save some money to go to the other end of the world, but we don’t see the beauty of the town or a national park just up the road from us (ugh… I live in Australia, so for us, “up/down the road” can be a few hundred kilometres away, but… that’s all right ;) Isn’t Brisbane just “up the road” from Sydney ;) )

We forget that the place where we live, the place up or down the road from us, is also the place many long to come and visit.

Isn’t it fascinating how many photos of various beautiful flowers I could take in a place that seemingly had no flowers at all? I find this amazing.

It also reminded me that, in some respect, we are like these tiny flowers. We all have our unique beauty, and we all contribute to the world’s beauty just by being ourselves. These gorgeous little flowers grew in an environment that was perfect for them, but it wouldn’t be good for roses or water lilies.

We all need to find the environment where we fit in. Yes, we are like these flowers, but contrary to them, we aren’t stuck in one place; we can move. So if we aren’t happy with our environment or feel we don’t fit in, we can always travel and find a place where we can flourish.

This walk wasn’t in a faraway exotic place; it was just “up the road” from my home (but I was travelling; I was staying in my caravan in a caravan park). It wasn’t a place I hadn’t been to before, as it wasn’t something new in any way. Yet it was such an eye-opener… Beauty is all around us; contentment is all around us; we just need to pause, take a breath, open our eyes and see it.

Thank you Michele Maize for the great topic for this month’s challenge!

And here are a few stories by writers I have enjoyed reading in the last few days. There are plenty of great articles, and I always struggle to select just a few; therefore, this time, I decided to list articles by writers I have just discovered, enjoyed their articles and decided to follow them. I hope you will enjoy their stories too!

I enjoyed Kerri Duncan’s article for this month’s challenge and the way how she manages to add flowers into any photo.

I have never been to London, but I enjoyed all the walks Jane Trombley took me on, in all the wonderful parks, and I hope to visit London in person one day.

And from Brad Yonaka article I learned a lot about Orchids! Great photos too!