What are the things in your life that you enjoy making beautiful? Is it your garden? Your family? The company for which you work? A spreadsheet? A book you’re writing? Yourself?

Pause for one minute and make a list. 

Are you back now? Good. Now ask yourself, what power do you use to make those items on your list beautiful? Did they just happen to be that or is it taking effort on your behalf to make them more so?

This can be an ugly world, but you have the power to make it beautiful. It begins with the belief that you were put on earth to make it more beautiful. If you start there, then you will look for ways to make it happen. Here are some ways that I have watched people in the last week make the world more beautiful:

A kind word – I was told by a colleague this week that I was a breath of fresh air. You have the power in a kind word to change someone’s entire day/week/month/year.

Social media – I learned to love social media once I learned to control it. Rob Curley, a journalist from Spokane says,  “If someone “friends” me and then posts all sorts of polarizing political stuff or is negative or picks fights or figures out how to make everything about the government, I unfriend them quicker than Mark Zuckerberg can book a flight to testify before Congress.”

Our yard and garden – My wife, Christine, loves yard work. Me? Not so much. I’d rather be in my woodworking shop or flyfishing somewhere, but my wife has created a slice of heaven on our property that is stunning. Although I joke that if I sit in one place too long, I will get dusted, decorated or discarded, my wife loves to make our space beautiful. She has taught me that organization is a deliberate act to beauty.

An Excel spreadsheet – Again, my wife is little-miss-organized and anything she touches, even an excel spreadsheet, becomes a work of art. She has spent her career working in finance so, for her, a spreadsheet tells her a story. Now, I can do spreadsheets, but I’m more like Sgt. Friday, (just the facts, Ma’am) than an artist, but I am learning.

A process – Processes that work are a beautiful thing. Those that don’t, well, they just look like a train wreck of inefficiency, chaos and despair.

Organizing stuff – Few things feel as good as a well organized office, shop, desk, and car or any other space you inhabit. Hey, it’s springtime; maybe a deep clean is your way to make the world beautiful today.

You have the power to make your world more beautiful today. What will you do to make that happen?

Dressed to the Nines

Note about the image, “Dressed to the Nines” – As I turned the corner heading out of town one morning, this tree’s beauty literally stopped me in my tracks! I jumped out with my camera and said to the tree, “My, oh, my, aren’t you beautiful this morning? You are dressed to the nines and looking good.” I want to be that tree in this world.