Green Shoots: There’s beauty everywhere - just look closely

My thoughts this week have been blighted by the ugliness of imperialism, war mongering, genocide, and racism. This ugliness is etched indelibly in the souls and faces of those old men who have stoked the recent frenzy of bombs and machismo. These old men who lay claim to authority from their gods and who send bombs to fall on innocent people have made the world an uglier place, less secure, less caring, more desperate. I’ve been actively resisting the descent into hopelessness at the impunity with which they violate not just the law, but the very essence of human decency and coexistence. 

This hasn’t been an easy task, and even the gentlest of people I know have struggled to resist the urge to retaliate and avenge. Instead I have found refuge in letting my thoughts search for the beauty in our world, and I’ve been daydreaming about the beautiful things my life allows me to experience.

My grandson is beauty itself, proof that god has rewarded us for not killing our kids. In my garden there’s a solitary clivia – the only one amidst the many - that blooms every year around this time. I am waiting for the five or six buds to explode into the most beautiful orange spectacle.

There’s a cartoon I came across by an artist who signs off as Johnson. The woman gets out the shower and is changing, and the husband / partner wolf-whistles in appreciation at what he sees. She says “yeh yeh you’ve seen me like this thousands of times’. His retort: “I’ve seen the sunset thousands of times too”. I can relate.

There’s beauty in music, in pictures, in conversations with young people who don’t let the ugliness dull their creativity and passion. The resilience of the youth in my life who don’t stop searching for jobs, who get up each time from the despair of rejection by a system that seems hellbent on destroying hope, is a beauty that is deep and strong. And every now and then they break through and get to go on adventures to other lands, or to enjoy the stability of income that allows them to start building assets and a life that isn’t only about struggle and survival.

There’s beauty in the resistance that people around us and across the seas are demonstrating. In New York, 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani took on the establishment and won the Democrat nomination with a message of care, hope, and inclusivity. He needs to win the mayoral race now in what will be a big, beautiful blow to the ugly orange stuff.

The young people in Nairobi refuse to be silenced, and are taking to the streets in sustained resistance to the ugliness of political oppression. I heard them say amidst the teargas, “We are done shedding blood because of power”. My heart swelled at hearing that simple refusal. I find beauty in words, and have been enjoying a series of poetic posts that pop up on my social media. I couldn’t find one about beauty, but surely there are few things more beautiful than happiness for those who live on our hearts: ‘In English, we say: “I hope you’re happy.” But in poetry, we say: “May the sun that warms your days be as kind to you as the first kiss of dew on the dawning light upon the leaves of the laurel that we once made love under.”’

Where do you find the beauty that makes your heart sing amidst the cacophony of ugliness in the world? Look for it in the places you don’t usually visit. Find it in the words of the one you are speaking with – friend or stranger. Listen closely to the words of the children in your life – they are beauty, and you will see it. And your heart will swell with hope. And hope is what we need to dispel the ugliness.