Life

Seeing the Beauty and Love

It’s so easy to forget

Little Amelia’s parents repeatedly told her that the world was a beautiful loving place. Practically since birth they had been telling her that several times each and every day.

Once Amelia learned to speak she also began saying that every day. She said it to the cat and the dog. She said it to her dolls. She said it to her cousins when they came to visit. And she said it a lot to her parents who smiled the biggest smiles whenever she did.

When Amelia was old enough to go to school she began telling her teacher and her classmates that the world was a beautiful loving place. But they did not smile. They looked at her very disapprovingly.

When Amelia asked her parents why other Earthlings reacted that way they told her that every Earthling learns that the world is a beautiful loving place in their own time. Some do not learn it until they are very old. It is not something that they can be forced to see and feel.

Amelia’s daddy said, “Remember when we took you for a picnic in the forest up in the mountains last summer? Remember how you saw so much beauty in everything — even that bee that was buzzing your sandwich?”

“Oh yes I do! That was one of my most favorite days ever. And now I can even see that beauty in our own backyard. It’s everywhere.”

Amelia’s mommy spoke, “A lot of kids are never shown how beautiful and loving the world is and they are never told that. Instead all they hear is how mean and horrible the world is. They hear it so much that they start believing it and once they believe it they never see the beauty and love.”

“But the world is a beautiful and loving place. I tell them that so they can see it, too.”

“Amelia sweetie, it’s very difficult to change anyone else’s thinking. The important thing is that you keep seeing and feeling the beauty and love and wonderfulness of the world. Those other kids who don’t see and feel it are part of that wonderful world. If you can see the beauty and love in them — and that can be really, really hard — then that helps them far more than just telling them something that they don’t want to believe. The more you see the beauty and love in them, the easier it will be for them to finally see it.”

Amelia’s daddy spoke up, “And the important thing is for you to keep telling yourself that the world is a beautiful and loving place. Being around kids and adults who constantly talk about how ugly the world is it is possible that their thinking can affect yours and you can start seeing the ugliness, too. So it helps to keep constantly reminding yourself that the world is a beautiful loving place. There is great beauty and love beneath anything that can be seen as ugly. Some choose to only see the ugly. It is up to you to keep choosing to see and feel the beauty and love in all things and all people. Do you understand?”

“Yeah. I think so. Thanks. I think I wanna go outside and play with Bosco and maybe go swinging for a while.”

When Amelia was twenty-eight years old she had a really, really bad day.

Her boyfriend dumped her. Her best friend shunned her. Her boss said something nasty about her and threatened to fire her. Some jerk cut her off in traffic on the way home and she almost wrecked her car. Her neighbor in the apartment next door was playing rap music so loud the whole apartment building was shaking. She got trolled on Facebook. She found out her checking account was overdrawn. And her dog died.

All in one day!

After much sobbing Amelia grabbed her favorite coffee mug and threw it as hard as she could against a wall, shattering it to pieces. She then yelled as loudly as she could, “The world sucks!”

As soon as she said that she instantly remembered that conversation she had with her parents so very long ago. Though the tears were still flowing a smile erupted on her face. She realized that she had not told herself that the world was a beautiful and loving place in a long time. Somehow she had forgotten to constantly remind herself of that.

Wiping her tears, Amelia left the apartment and walked to a nearby park. She got on a swing and swung back and forth through the air for over an hour.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. Thanks for reading.

Speaking of girls and their dogs…