Quiet Beauty

Tonight, and some of this morning too, I guess, I sat outside alone in the dark. You might think this is a very strange thing to do, and maybe it was. But I enjoyed it, and here's why: it was beautiful.

"Beautiful? What are you talking about? It was a cloudy, winter night. No stars, not leaves, no light." 

But there are many different kinds of beauty. Tonight, because it was cloudy, the trees stood out in stark silhouette against the clouds. I thought it was a very beautiful thing. It was very still, and very very quiet.

Then every so often, a light breeze would come through and stir the silhouettes. Gently they would rock, back and forth. The sound they made was the gentlest rustle, the kind that could only be made on a winter midnight. Beautiful to see. Beautiful to hear.

We live in a very beautiful world, you know that? Everyone knows about sunsets, sunrises, waterfalls, and mountain views, but how many other beautiful things are out there that we haven't seen? Quiet things, like watching bare trees dance against a cloudy winter sky, or the whisper of dry leaves in the wind.

The Artist who painted this world hid masterpieces everywhere.