Beauty And Goodness Are Everywhere
Appreciating The People And Things Around You
When we begin to believe that beauty and goodness are everywhere around us, we start to notice this in our lives more and more. What we believe in has a huge impact on our lived experience because we often consciously and unconsciously validate what we believe until it feels more and more true. Start to pay attention to what stories you tell yourself.
When we see that beauty and goodness are around us all the time, our attention turns from the mundane to the extraordinary hiding in plain sight, as if the world becomes a little more alive with each passing day.
This morning, I was on my usual walk to a grocery store in Wuhan. It’s a 25-minute walk from my apartment. By China’s standards, it feels far, yet by U.S. standards, it’s just around the corner. There are closer stores but I have been regularly going to this particular one because it sells some of the freshest, highest-quality produce. Yes, it costs a bit more, but sometimes I think it’s worth paying extra to nourish myself with the best ingredients available. (After all, we are what we eat – if I nourish myself with junk food I’m mostly made of junk…and if I nourish myself with high-quality food I’m mostly high-quality, right? Hahaha. Is that how it works? I hope so!) Anyway, most of the produce they carry comes directly from organic farms in Yunnan.
Sometimes, I buy a batch of their handmade xiao long bao (I think they’re more like bao zi than xiao long bao). Today, they were unusually large – almost twice the usual size! When I asked the cashier about it, she laughed and said the man who normally makes them had accidentally fallen asleep. (Maybe he let the dough ferment or proof a bit too long?) So, I thought about him as I ate my lunch: a person whose name I’ll never know but who wakes up early each day to prepare these delicious xiao long bao. And I felt a sense of gratitude for this person who lovingly makes this every day so that I can occasionally enjoy them as they nourish my body and add a touch of joy to my day. I thought about him waking up early in the morning before the store opened to make them. And feeling so tired that he dozed off.
This small moment reminded me of the countless people who work behind the scenes to make our daily lives possible. There’s a vast web of hands involved in bringing these small delights to us (and to me), from the farmers in Yunnan who cultivate the vegetables to the truck drivers who transport them, ensuring they reach the store fresh and ready to be enjoyed. They are the blue-collar workers whose labor often goes unnoticed yet is essential for our lives and society to run smoothly. Today, I feel so much appreciation for these workers.
In many societies, blue-collar work doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves. But these workers are the backbone of our communities, and without them, our day-to-day lives would look entirely different. The cashier, the baker, the farmer, and the delivery driver are all part of an intricate system of care and dedication. Each time I use a bathroom that is clean and stocked with toilet paper, each time I get a fresh vegetable to take home, and each time I walk through a manicured park, I’m connected to their hard work and contributions.
If you look at a bee or ant colony, every single ant or bee has a specific role that is essential to the colony. The queen is responsible for producing offsprings, there are different types of workers who build, who housekeep, who collect food, who guard, and drones who mate. Every single one of them are created to be good at a specific role which they play and every single one of them is essential. It’s the same for our society – all of us are meant to do different things and be unique, and all of us are essential.
It’s easy to forget the beauty and goodness surrounding us because it’s so prevalent in everyday life. We forget to notice them because they are always there and we’ve filtered them out, and instead see the negatives. We take for granted the blue skies above, the cheerful sounds of birds, the flowers and beautiful trees along pathways, the abundance of food, or the convenience of getting things delivered to us in a couple of days. These are blessings – as common as they may be – that fill our lives with color and meaning. As we live our lives, may we remember to notice and appreciate these quiet acts of goodness and the people who bring them to life. Perhaps next time even look someone in the eye and share your heartfelt gratitude with them. It takes just one sentence to bring a smile to someone’s face, to make someone’s day so much better, and to make someone feel deeply appreciated. In doing so, we add a little more light and gratitude to our world.
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