The beauty of life is that it never stops. Life moves with or without you, and eventually we all figure out, one way or another, what we are missing by trying to stand still. If we are lucky, we get that this life won’t wait for us before we find out that its too late. If we aren’t so lucky, at least we leave this place fully conscious of what we have missed. Either way, lucky or unlucky, we all mourn for what we don’t have time to get to. There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

You can slow down time if you want. You can savor every moment of today if you really want to. If you are disconnected inside, sure, you might have an easier time of it; when the boss is talking, it makes it that much easier to zone out. But you’ll miss the sway of the trees as you walk by, the same sway that would have brought you back to a happy moment, alone in a field somewhere. The birds sing for you, but you just won’t hear it. My point is, listening to the boss means you get to hear the birds.

Beauty is everywhere; it calls to you, but your ears are deaf to its sweet song.

There are different forms of beauty. Some are ageless, eternal, some momentary and brilliant, but neither is more important than the other in the flow of the Universe. You can appreciate a tree, the curve of a hip, and the grandeur of a mountain simultaneously. The mountain won’t change, but you can’t take a mountain home.

Plant the seeds of love everywhere you go. And water those seeds. Don’t be possessive of who will stand in the shade of the trees that you help grow. Let your flowers get up and walk away if they have to. Honor beauty by not crushing it with possession. Possession, like most beauty, is temporary. Why keep something that can’t be chained down anyway?

Look at who you love. Look at them without judgment, without thought. See them as they are, not as who you want them to be. Love them with all you’ve got just for one moment. Now, tell me that beauty matters as much as love.

Build your own mountain, and give it to God to tear down if He sees fit. If it comes down quickly, it wasn’t a mountain at all. Appreciate the cycle of life with the love you grow. Watch it take hold, watch it grow, watch it pull up its roots and walk away. Sit in the humble acceptance that you gave love without strings attached. And watch your love come back to you again, and again, and again.

Don’t argue about the kind of shade you get from whoever shows up at your doorstep. Some trees don’t throw a lot of shade, but they sure are pretty to look at.

Moment to moment to moment: live! Let yourself live!! You are here NOW, and YOU are beautiful as you are. Change selfishly. Change because you want more – more beauty, more love, more life. More, more, more – admit you want more. Have the courage to admit it. Say it out loud: “I want more!” It’s OK if you yell, because trees don’t have ears.