On one of the pages of our blog (I think the second, if you keep scrolling down and continue reading older entries), there will be a beautiful picture of water, mountains, and boats. That is Bellingham Bay, probably one of my favorite places in the world. I took that shot a few years ago when attending a friend’s wedding. It’s not just the bay I’m in love with. It’s all of Bellingham. I fell in love with Bellingham and Washington State and the Pacific Northwest in general. It possesses an allure that just draws you in.

My good friend who lives there saw the picture and commented on it.  I told her how lucky she was to live in a beautiful place. I thought of how if I lived there, I’d be up at 5 a.m. every morning, taking walks down by the bay, and admiring the mountain range in the distance.

Right.

That same Pacific Northwest friend visited me years ago in my humble little hometown of Tallahassee. I took her to the few tourist-y attractions we can boast of; the Junior Museum, Maclay Gardens, and the top of the capital. I figured she’d be unimpressed with our flat landscape. But she wasn’t unimpressed. While we cruised about town, I took her down some of our prettier canopy roads. I have always loved the big oak trees that are all over Tallahassee, and I especially love the way they envelop some of our roads. I didn’t think she’d be so impressed with them though. As we journeyed down the road with our Phil Wickham soundtrack, she gazed out the open window and took in what she lovingly refers to as “droopy branches.”

I often forget about the beauty that surrounds me everyday. Since I love mountains so much, it’s easy to dwell only on the fact that there are none around me. But if I take a walk through some of our beautiful parks here in Tallahassee, I rediscover some of our beauty every time.

When I toured through the country, I was blessed with the opportunity to see some beautiful places in our country. I especially loved Alaska. We spent six weeks, bouncing from town to town. I loved the majestic mountains that were on every side of us. We eventually traveled into Canada, and slowly made our way back to the states. The mountains eventually faded into the background, and we found ourselves in the flatlands of Montana and North Dakota. I was depressed, and longed for the majestic mountains once more.

One night, I took a walk through the farmlands that surrounded the host family I was staying with. I looked up, and noticed how big the sky was. Since the land was flat as far as I could see, and there were no hills surrounding me, there was nothing but sky all around me. The sunset and clouds were more visible. It was beautiful.

I have to remind myself that there is beauty in everything. I just have to look close enough. Sure, I could dream about living on Bellingham Bay, but then I’d miss the droopy branches.