Beauty in the Little Things

If I can be totally honest, I've never really thought of LA as beautiful. Every time I go home to northern California (which isn't often), I'm in awe of how green everything is.  I'm so used to the concrete jungle of LA that I don't even miss the greenery.  Recently, I've been spending a lot more time outside and spending my time seeing things in a different light.  In my old daily life, I'm constantly moving from one thing to the next, often multitasking and just trying to get through the day.

With all the time I've found myself with recently, my days move at a different pace and I'm noticing things I've never seen before.  I've lived in the same apartment for the last 6 years, so we haven't had a change of scenery in a while, but I feel like I'm somewhere new.  I'm noticing butterflies, floating through the air, the flowers in the trees and the bushes and the sweet smell of fresh air.  Were these things always here?  They probably were, but I was just to busy and preoccupied to notice or appreciate them. 

Bella and I walk past this wall of flowers every day.  Since this photo was taken, the flowers have bloomed even fuller and there are beautiful yellow flowers on the other side of the sidewalk lining the wall.  I'm sure these have always been there - I remember seeing them before.  But never before have I noticed the sheer beauty of these flowers.  I don't know what they're called, but they are absolutely stunning in full bloom.  It's really remarkable what you see and notice when you slow down a little and take the time to look around you.

When I posted this picture on instagram, my caption was "Taking the time to stop and smell the roses.  Okay, so they aren't exactly roses, but Bella and I have been noticing so many beautiful spring flowers on our walks and we wanted to share them with you!  We also wanted to remind you to stop and notice the beauty in the little things."

This was a month ago and I find these words more relevant than ever before.  I'm noticing just how differently I'm seeing the world around me and it's pretty remarkable.  Last week when I took a walk around the neighborhood, I took pictures of some of the beautiful flowers I saw.  Here they are:

Believe it or not, these are in a Well's Fargo parking lot right by the ATMs.  The jasmine's are emitting an amazing, sweet perfume this time of year.

 

 

 

 Walking around seeing all this beauty in the world makes you think a little differently.