The Good, the Bad and the... Beautiful

Oh my, have these been trying times of late. One heartbreaking story after another in the news. Even our little town's newspaper (where the police blotter is usually filled with stories of escaped cows in the road) has had more than its fair share of heartbreak lately. At times like this its easy to feel overwhelmed. To feel helpless. To feel hopeless.

But, oh, is it important that we don't let that happen.

I was thinking the other day about my article in Artful Blogging. I wrote it last summer and the magazine came out last fall. I wrote: "Art is a small thing. Blogging is a small thing. In the face of the world's darkness, what difference does it make?... sometimes I struggle to keep my faith in the importance of beauty at a time when heartbreaking news headlines seem to be more frequent." Sadly, the frequency of heartbreaking news headlines has not decreased. Will it ever? I don't know.

But I think that my faith in the importance of beauty, in the strength of doing "small things with great love" has grown over the past year.

There will always be ugliness in this world, but there will always be beauty, too.

There will always be hatred in this world, but there will always, always be love.

This weekend I was reading a community magazine. Based in Decorah, Iowa, Inspired calls itself "an experiment in positive news." They are celebrating their 10th anniversary this fall. In the letter from the editor, Aryn Henning Nichols writes "It's so easy to feel completely helpless when we read the daily news. 'What can we possibly do?!?' we ask ourselves. Talk to your neighbors. Make friends. Build community. Start to understand each other a little more every day. This is what we can do."

Her words resonated so strongly with me. Community is a powerful thing. Here on the internet I value the community I've become a part of.

The kindness and encouragement. The inspiration and the love. I am so glad to have each of you here reading these words, leaving comments, sending emails, supporting my art.*

One thing that has struck me moving from the city to a small town in the country is how people help one another here. Our town certainly isn't perfect. There's more than a little tension between the old timers and the transplants, but community is strong. People support small businesses here. Business owners encourage and help the growth of new businesses. People are friendly. They wave and smile at strangers. And it still boggles my mind that the fire fighters are all volunteers (I recently went on a tour of the fire station and was moved by the selflessness of a volunteer fire department).

We don't need to join the volunteer fire department in order to make a difference, though. Be kind. Show love. Compassion. Understanding. Encouragement. Shine a light into the darkness. Add your beauty to the world, whatever that beauty might be.

Beauty is important. And yes, I believe that it can change the world. Won't you help me do it?

I'm going to be taking a little blog break, an internet fast and a vacation. My next post will show up on September 26th. Sending each of you thoughts of hope and joy and love. Keep on shining your light into the darkness.



*Thank you to each of you who voted for my design in Spoonflower's Fall Design Contest. Sadly, my design placed 65. Yes, I was more than a little disappointed, but I do value each of your votes and all of the kind words about my piece. And don't worry, I still intend on releasing my design as part of a new collection I'm working on. Disappointment will not change that.