Tulips

Chelsea asked, "Why is the screen blank?"

I answered, "I'm having trouble with today's blog entry."

"Why?"

I thought about my week: medical tests, pain, unexpected bills, vehicle breakdowns.  I reflected on the news: how the rising cost of food will affect our most vulnerable citizens, rich people hiring guides with disabilities at Disney World so they can jump to the front of line-ups, corrupt politicians, unimaginable violence towards women, 1.5 million refugees fleeing Syria, the murder of who appears to be a good family man, cruelty toward animals, and answered, "I'm feeling sad."

"Well, what should your blog entry be about?"

"Well, the theme of my blog is beauty.  Beautiful things, where we don't expect to find them."

"Like tulips," she said without thinking.  "Like the tulips that surprise you when they come up in the Spring after a long winter."

Of course she would be able to easily answer.  She is a child, not burdened by the stresses of adult life or bruised by this troubled world.  But at the same time, of course she is right.  There is other news this week too: Chris Hadfield has landed back on earth safely, who said to his nearly 1 million twitter followers, "Space is too good not to share," that scientists have discovered a reservoir of water in the Canadian Shield that is 1.5 billion years old (imagine!), how a community in Los Angeles rallied to help the sick dog of a homeless man and now they both have a safe place to live, and how Spencer West, a double amputee, walked on his hands from Edmonton to Calgary to raise money for clean water projects overseas.

Life is a mix of dark and light, dismal and beautiful.  It is our duty as citizens of this world to take care of each other, to hang on to hope, to discover and educate, and to recognize beauty when we see it and feel it.  

"Yes.  Like tulips."

wishing you a beautiful long weekend,
hk