It's intresting how one can be around incredible beauty and never see it until much later. We are all guilty of it. As this one would come to realize the other day, there IS beauty in some form or another everywhere, if we are just willing to pay attention to it.

Having worked at a oceanside aquarium now for the last nine years (hard to believe it has been that long) the ocean and all of it's inhabitants have always been right in front of this one. Yet all this one ever saw was subject material, specimens, and science. This one was always aware of the beauty in the ocean (that is why this one started working at the aquarium) but never once had this one ever taken the time to admire that beauty. From the get go this ones only thought was to teach people about the ocean and all the animal and plant life that make it what it is. The motivation to do so was strong out of a sence of duty to save a precious and vanishing resource that many never get to see (if you live in a land-locked area). But this never actually took a moment to admire the ocean not for the science of it, but for it's inherent beauty. That changed the other day.

As this one sat on a bench in the aquarium, nearing shut down at the end of the day, for whatever reason a burst of bubbles was created by a small and colorful reef fish called a Yellowtailed Coris. [link]
In that instant the bubbles caught the sunlight in such a way that it looked as if they bubble were solid, and they glittered like gems as they made their way to the surface. It was as if this beautifuly colored fish was creating saphires as he went along his way, and in doing so giving a simple but much needed joy to those who truely needed it. And there was the beauty this one had failed to see for so long. This one knew there was no magic to it, this one knew all the science behind it, but in that moment this one did'nt care about any of that. This one was spellbound, if only for a moment, for what it was: Beautiful.

This one challenges all who read this journal to find that beauty that is right is right in front of you. Not in the pixels of a video game, or the material "bling" in a high priced department store, or on the screen of a television set, but in the nature that is right in front of you. Once you find it, you find the value that is inherent in life itself.

Let your heart tell you what is right, let your soul show you where it is, let your mind tell you how to get there.