Find Beauty in Your Backyard

I promise you it's there.

One of the most magical things we have the opportunity to do in our lives is travel.

I understand that travel is stressful, that it’s complicated, that it doesn’t always feel *magical*, especially when the lines at the airport are long, our luggage gets lost, we’re in a country unfamiliar to us that makes us feel uneasy, or we just want to go home.

But the option to travel is always there. The opportunity to see something new is always there.

Granted, travel can be expensive. And often when we think about traveling we think of crossing oceans, of going somewhere extravagant or so far removed from our homes that we have to count the time difference on our fingers.

That kind of travel can be incredible. Being in a brand new place with perhaps a brand new language, walking amongst brand new people living out their days so profoundly different than you can be transformative.

Instagram is famous for giving people wanderlust, showing off incredible views of far off places that make you wistful and hopeful and perhaps mindful of how long it would take you to save up to get there.

I love to travel, I love planning trips, I love checking things off my list, knowing that the world is so grand and vast that the list could never end.

God created a beautiful world, with beautiful people, and while I’m so grateful for pictures and videos and social media for giving us glimpses into the lives being lived around the world, there is something special about seeing it for ourselves—planting our feet on new ground, hearing new sounds, smelling new smells, tasting new food and meeting new people.

That being said, I think it’s human nature to long for the far and the extravagant. To crave those bursts of newness and to feel stagnant during times when we can’t. Sometimes I think we travel because we want to feel like we’ve done something—maybe we even travel just so we can post pictures and make people jealous. It’s good to get out of our bubble, to step away from the familiar, but it’s also easy to belittle our normal in favor of idolizing the extravagant. To resent people for their ability to afford crazy trips while we can’t afford much of anything. To miss everything beautiful that’s right in our backyard because we have our eyes glued to what’s out there.

Traveling is special, but it’s not the only way to see the magic in the world, to marvel at God’s creations, to notice how many people there are and how many lives are being lived. No matter where you’re from, there is something to be marveled at. There are unique and fascinating sights, sounds, and smells that give it heart and character. There are people that might travel to where you live, who would take pictures of it with fresh eyes and tell friends back home, you’re never going to believe this.

Roll your eyes if you want, look cynically at that overfilled dumpster or that long stretch of flat dirt as you try to prove me wrong. Or maybe look up, look down, go down a street you’ve never gone before. Pull yourself out of your routine, take the blinders off, move slow and notice something new. Something beautiful that might make you say, even for just a minute, huh, that’s nice.

Find the intention of God today. Notice that sunset, that tree with the gorgeous, far reaching branches, the way a stoplight reflects on a puddle, a genuine belly laugh coming from someone inside a restaurant, the smell of an orange tree, a butterfly circling around you, a refreshing breeze sending a shiver down your spine, a meaningful hug between strangers, a child staring up in wonder.

You don’t always have to go far to find magic.

God made a big world and you are part of it—don’t miss all the beauty that’s right in front of you.