On a Taste of Beauty

I recently saw a butterfly. That in itself was nothing extraordinary. I have seen many butterflies in my life. However, it is far to rare that I look at butterflies. This one happened to rest on the ground just a few feet away from me so I decided to take a closer look. The fellow was incredible. While his wings were closed they were very dark dull grey with muted spots of red along the edge, but when he opened them, he displayed rich, glossy black wings with shimmering blue spots near the tail. Anyone who has seen one of my paintings knows that I love blues, especially when intermingling dark and light values. Maybe someone else would not have been as impressed, but I marveled at the little guy. He flitted about a bit and came to rest again, so I crept closer again. He seemed to be resting on the remains of what had once been a childs sugary snack and was quite enjoying himself, I am sure. But while he sat there, he kept fanning his wings, almost as if he was showing off. Perhaps this is lame, perhaps not, but I spent five minutes crouched on the ground watching this beautiful butterfly.
We miss so much beauty in the world. Snippets of it are everywhere, but we miss them. This is turning into just another "stop and smell the roses" story, but it is so true. There is so much beauty to be had. Nature is so undervalued. Quit reading this and go: watch a butterfly, smell a flower, climb a tree, look at a rock. Find some beauty and enjoy it.