Little Lovelies

     It's a soft and quiet sunrise made just for your eyes. It's the taste of cocoa and the smell of old books and a cozy overcast sky. It's a peaceful evening on the lake or a bird in its first flight. It's smaller than beauty and softer than life and just enough to make you smile. It's a word all it's own, and one that the world is slowly allowing to die. But this word - "lovely" - is dear to my heart and I, for one, will keep it alive.

     There is something about lovely things that enchants me. The word describes something that quietly and unassumingly warms the human heart. Not as garish and vain as beauty, though beauty is just as good, but the little tiny wonders that reminds us that life is good. I think these things deserve to be recorded and shared because there is something magical about them. But more often they are the things that go unnoticed.

     So I am starting a new movement - and feel free to join me - that I'd like to call Project Lovely. Never again do I want to let a lovely thing pass me by without noting it in some way - most likely here, in my blog. Because it is the little lovelies of life that allow us to believe in life's goodness.

     And there is something else wonderful about the word lovely - it means something different for each person. Because "lovely" describes what is soft sunshine to your soul, and every soul is different. So please, share your little lovelies.

     So for my first little lovely, I'll tell you a story - it's a true one, I promise you that. I was driving down a small, little road, in the small little state of PA, passing rows of small, little houses covered in the colors of May. And no one else noticed and no one else cared but myself on that small, little day, to look to the side and see someone trying and succeeding in brightening our world. Just one of these many small houses I saw stuck out in a quiet, simple way. The front was covered in a blue, glass mosaic and depicted the world "Welcome" in a way that reminded me of a first-grader's letter to his mother - simple and sweet. And the pathway was lined with sunflowers high enough to touch my chin, and all of it was enough to make me believe I would find a true angel within. It wasn't quite pretty, but it was bright and it was kind, and it filled up my heart to the brim. And I thought that telling you might make you glad for the lovely little world we live in.