(Photograph by moi of the sparkling, beautiful Jul)

We were in the sprawling supermarket.

Ostara was fidgeting, grumpy, putting both hands down my top to grab my boobs.

I laugh my way through it – down long corridors to get yogurt and rice crackers as my shirt gets increasingly pawed down.

My love pays for the groceries, and I excuse myself out the doors.

I park beside a stooped woman on the bench, let Ostara drape her length over my legs, and lift my shirt for her to nurse.

She settles in with a contented giggle and a smile.

I take a deep breath, and let my shoulders drop and relax.

And then.

And then.

I look up.

There are swallows playing in the white sails above my head.

They swoop and they dance and they float.

The light is golden through the sail crevices.

Out of all the places, there was magic glistening there.

Right in the peak of the sails fronting a supermarket. Just beside the stooped woman.

I found a sweet smile tinting my face ruby gold.

And I remembered:

Beauty is everywhere.

And I remembered every moment before then that I’d seen the beauty too.

Glimpsed it in stolen moments, when I was quiet enough to see what was truly around me.

I remember the moments when I was a child.

How I’d bury myself into the neck of my German Shepherd dog and feel like God was holding me.

How I’d weep at the glory of a sunset.

How I’d inhale my horse’s neck and gasp at its beauty.

Everywhere, there was beauty to be seen. To be felt. To be known.

Tell the world

the wind tells me.

Tell them we are beautiful.

Sometimes they forget.

Tell them the whole wide world is here to love them.

Tell them the beauty is everywhere.

So I take my paintbrush, and I take my pen. I take my voice,

and I tell the world what the wind tells me,

There is beauty everywhere.

Sometimes I forget.

But then I see again:

in the swallows and the mountains and the way the light shines.

and I remember.

Thank you, beautiful world.

I love you with every cell inside me,