Beauty

"There are flowers everywhere, for those who bother to look."
~Henri Matisse

I find that it is the simplest of things that are the most beautiful-a baby's smile, an autumn leaf, a fresh baked chocolate cake. I struggle with beauty. I cherish it. I see it in everything and everywhere I go. And of course I want to be thought of as beautiful, but--is there a woman anywhere who doesn't? It is one of our deepest desires. To be received, perceived, accepted as beautiful. It is one of our most basic questions to the world-do you think I am beautiful? But beauty can be both elusive and temperamental.

Before I met and married my husband I was room mates with a man named Mark. Mark dated Valerie. She often told me that what she liked best about me was that I always found beauty in things that weren't particularly beautiful. At the time, I was taking photographs of some rusted metal in the backyard. I was awestruck as I noticed the way the sunlight and color from the bougainvillea vine mingled on the rusted metal. I couldn't help but grab my camera. I wondered how she could miss the beauty in what I saw that afternoon. I guess it wasn't 'conventional' beauty.
I think one of the reasons I like to bake is that it is so easy, so reliable, so simple to produce something of beauty from my oven. It doesn't hurt either that I have three children all with a sweet tooth!
Another thing that is totally beautiful is the way the leaves are brilliantly reddish orange right now or the way the fog rolls in over the water on a chilly autumn day. I guess Matisse is the smart one-we just need to open our eyes to see the beauty everywhere if we would just bother to look!
I brought Pumpkin Cookie Treats and Dreamy Island Cookies to the Farm for sale this morning. One of the girls who works there made a point to tell me that people really like my baking. I thought now that's a beautiful comment.