It's the Differences that Make the World Beautiful

 Yesterday, I took my family to see the Albuquerque Botanic Gardens. The gardens were absolutely beautiful, with several different, themed gardens to enjoy, and of course we snapped lots and lots of photographs of the beautiful flowers and other plants. As the day wore on, I began to notice something very interesting about the pictures we were taking. The wide shots, which usually encompassed several different types of flowers and plants in one, were absolutely breathtaking...

But every time I tried to get a close-up shot of an individual flower or two within the grouping, the individual flaws and imperfections of that particular flower became more apparent. When taken all together, I saw and focused on the beauty of the flowers, and it was only when I tried to find that one, magical, picture perfect plant that I came away disappointed.

 

I realized that life is like that. No one person is completely perfect, absolutely devoid of flaws. We all wish we could change something about ourselves. Maybe you want to lose a few pounds, add some muscle, change the color or style of your hair, alter the shape of your nose... Or maybe you have a bad habit you'd like to break (or a good habit you want to adopt)... The point is, we're all works in progress. We all stumble from time to time. We get scraped and bruised and completely run down from time to time, but we all have the potential to become better.

 

But the great thing about life is that we don't have to be perfect to be beautiful. And when we all work together for a common goal, we can rely on each others' strengths to pull us through where we may be weak.

 



The flowers at the Botanical Gardens weren't trying to put each other down or compete for the title of "most beautiful plant in the garden." Growing side-by-side, accenting and even supporting each other as they grew together, they created a beautiful display that makes hundreds of people each day stop and stare. Wouldn't it be nice if we could do the same for each other? If we could work together to make our world a better place, remembering that a daisy isn't any less beautiful simply because it isn't a rose? Wouldn't it be great if we didn't spend so much time trying to make everyone else do and act and think just like us, but learned to love and accept the unique beauty of everyone around us, remembering that it's the differences that make our world truly beautiful? Wouldn't it be great if we could learn a lesson from the flowers?