I have this memory I've kept with me for over twenty years. I'm walking into the kitchen and I see my mother sitting at the table. She's eating an apple and I'm awestruck. She was beautiful. Even her chewing was graceful. Somehow she made the apple look like the most delicious thing I'd ever seen in my whole five years of living.
I remember before that moment never having any interest in apples. They seemed boring and difficult to eat, but seeing her gave me a renewed interest in this suddenly beautiful red fruit.
I said, "Mommy, can I have a bite?" Of course she gave me one. And of course I ate it like a horse, sloppy and the opposite of my graceful mother.
Sometimes we catch people in these moments of pure beauty.They're doing ordinary things that somehow inspire us to live life differently. It's how a fierce businesswoman gets out of a cab, an old woman picks a flower from her garden, or a young father ties his daughter's shoe laces. They are moments that make us stop and reflect and they often speak to a part of us that has been neglected.
Perhaps that's why I love photos of dancers in the wings, tying satin ribbons or adjusting a bobby pin. Or why we love candid photos of Audrey Hepburn reading (or doing anything, really). It's something they do multiple times a day, yet they do it in a way that reminds us beauty can be anywhere.
Have you witnessed unsuspecting beauty?