For the Beauty of the Earth

May.
Sixty glorious degrees, waking us from our paling, depressed Ohio winter.
Snowflakes still fall. No, petals. The breeze stirs the branches, and they let go of thousands of soft, white petals that float to the ground. A few land in my light copper hair as I walk by.
The sweet smell of grass rises like coffee on Christmas day. Everywhere, a plethora of color bursts forth in the gardens of older women. Each bud seems to smile, nearly laughing at the cold that has seemed to abandon us.
Even here in Akron, Ohio, God has reserved beauty. We don't always walk around seeing it.
Sometimes we gawk at parrots in cages- as if the black squirrels of Canton and Akron weren't wondrous and fascinating in some way. We look at rain in terms of games being cancelled, instead of the number of puddles we can jump in. We look at the faces of those who tear us down, instead of the cloudless sky, where His face looks upon us with love.
We aren't even aware of how intricately our lives are attached to Him. In our art, we celebrate His own creativity- a gift he's shared with us. In our invention of sport, study of medicine, and practice of sex, we celebrate the human body and what He has made us capable of doing.
Just a few weeks ago, I walked around a well- kept, calm college campus. On days when the sun would shine, you could almost see God smiling. There's nothing like walking ten feet and being able to see a microcosm of everything he intended. On a campus, you catch a glimpse of how everything we live around combines. You see the geeks, and the musicians, and the writers. You come across the athletes, the doctors, the teachers, and the people who simply smile and make your day. It takes all of this. It takes all of these shades of skin, all these languages, these lives, these stories, to see any of how we've all made it so far.
This, the idea of college in itself, is a gift. Where else can you get any idea of how people other than yourself live? I consider this to be the most tremendous gift God has given me- or any of us.

This day is over now. After failing at making a pizza, squishing two spiders, and complaining because I was cold, I've come to realize just how small my problems are. We feel belittled when others cheapen our burdens, but in keeping our pain valid, we stop seeing the pain around us. We don't even hear the mother cursing at her children in the grocery store. We don't give a second thought to the couple who walks all the way across town because their car was taken away. We're too busy thinking about what the heck plan B is for dinner.
I have strong opinions about American mindsets. However, I refuse to believe this is our problem alone. All around the world, people are hurting and there are just as many people who are bickering over pointless things and so selfishly absorbed in their own drama that they give no thought to anyone but themselves.
I don't want to be like that. Maybe that desire and consciousness in and of itself is indicative of my self-centered soul and society. 

In fact, I have no idea how the first half of this all relates to the second half. It may not. That's the beauty of thought, and will. There doesn't have to be a reason. There doesn't even have to be an end.