| “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart” – Helen Keller |
 A mural I saw while at the beach. |
| Good morning! I am Hugh Hollowell, and this is Life is So Beautiful, a newsletter about finding the beautiful when it’s hard to – and maybe especially when it’s hard to.Back in the day – you know, before the global pandemic and subsequent meltdown of civilization – one of my favorite things to do was to go to the beach. I never saw the ocean until I was 18, but have been making up for lost time since then. Normally, we make sure to spend as much time at the nearest beach (about a 3 hour drive) as we can each spring and fall. But then Covid 19 happened, and all our spring plans fell through, and then the next thing you know you haven’t been away from your house for more than an hour at a time for months on end. So… last week, while on vacation, we went to Ocean Springs, a cute little beach town outside of Biloxi. The thing about beaches is that you have to judge them on their own merits. To compare the shallow, relatively placid waters of the Mississippi Gulf Coast to the Outer Banks of North Carolina will only fill you with frustration, but if you judge them on their own merits, they are lovely. Ocean Springs has cute shops, a beach district that is walkable from the shopping district, and the shallow waters are great if you happen to have a child who has never seen the ocean before and is getting used to the sensation of salty waves splashing over him. We were pretty apprehensive to travel during the pandemic, but we took lots of precautions. Masks all the time when we were around people at all, going during the middle of the week when it was slowest, only eating takeout or at outdoor venues that took lots of precautions, practically a gallon of hand sanitizer. It wasn’t everything it normally was, but it was infinitely better than sitting at home wishing I could see the beach. And it was the shot of beauty I needed in the midst of a chaotic year. I hope you get a chance to see something beautiful this week yourself. Five beautiful things I really liked this twitter thread asking the best lesson you have learned. This Japanese video of a blue and white flycatcher (and other birds) playing at a birdbath is magical. I love Rebecca Solnit’s writing, so it is no surprise I loved this interview where she talks about the transformative potential of a crisis – you know, like a global pandemic. People who know me will not be shocked that I love this huge, crazed picnic table that looks like a giant tree. (Thanks to the several folks that sent me that link!) They are just floating black balloons, but they capture my fancy all the same. Bonus: After a lot of work by a lot of people, Mississippi finally took down that flag. As someone who has prayed for this day for decades and has worked on this issue recently, I find myself weeping with joy at the prospect of what this says about where my state is, and where it could go. * * * Well, that is it for this week. I hope you have a great week, and that your life is filled with beautiful things. If you see something beautiful this week, I hope you will let me know about it, and if one of my five I shared today struck you in a special way, I hope you will let me know about that, too. If you want to support this project, you can sign up to be a Patron or buy me a book or throw me some cash or, especially, forward this email to your friends. And if someone did forward this to you, you can get your own subscription here. Take care of yourself. And each other. |