This morning, at my daily workout with my trainer, I finished the session with my usual back-stretch over the large red ball, with arms and legs extended and head dropped back. I stayed in that position, for about a minute, relaxing with my breathing and feeling the satisfying tug on the psoas and lower back muscles. Instead of closing my eyes, I fixed my upsidedown gaze on a large photo print, sitting on the floor, propped up against the wall. Beautiful, dark blues, greens, and lavenders filled my vision. But what am I looking at? Once I distinguished mountains, trees, rocks and water in the composition, I realized I was seeing confusing images. Am I seeing double? I hope my eyesight isn’t deteriorating along with other parts of my body.
I stared at the photo. No wait. It’s a reflection in still water. But which is the actual scene and which the reflection? But does it matter? The scene is beautiful. Rolling back up to a sitting position on the ball, I saw it didn’t matter at all. When your world seems to be upside down, you just have to look for the beauty in it.
So where does this take my thinking in today’s upside-down world? How can we see beauty in the Bahamas now with nothing left but total debris and corpses? How can we see beauty in the cages holding children along the Mexican border, or in the thousands of lives lost trying to escape terror in their countries? How can we see beauty in the massacres of people in villages at the Congo or Sudan? Sexually assaulted, beaten or starved children in all the world? Our earth being robbed of its life? Inequalities and injustices? A nonfunctional government? And, on and on it seems; every day more.
It feels as though the world has gone topsy-turvy. Disordered. Reversed. In a muddle. Higgledy-piggledy? Is that a word? Whatever the word or words, I do what I can in my individual way to help and then I look for the beauty in the chaos—in the woods, in the trees, in the rocks, in the ocean, in the eyes of our animals, in our mates, friends and books. I found this is the only way I can avoid depression and stay sane.
Looking out into the universe, despite the turmoil, we can see beauty brought to our eyes by the Hubble telescope and the cameras on our space rockets.
Look everywhere with a keen eye and open heart.