What is beautiful?

Today with my 7th graders, we talked about “beauty.”
Now this is not the stereotypical type of beauty that media tries to convince us is true.
That beauty is deceiving.
It skews our view of the world.
That’s not the beauty we talked about.
This type of beauty is around us, in the world, every day.




Friends greeting each other with a warm hug.
Rain dancing on the roof tops.
Leaves crunching under our feet.
The crack of a wooden bat, hitting a baseball high into the sky.

That kind of beauty.
The beauty that makes our jaw drop,
makes us smile, and stare in awe.
Yeah. That beauty.
It’s perfect in it's simplicity.
And it’s truly beautiful.
One of my goals this year is to show you, yes you, how amazing teens are.
I receive different reactions when people hear that I teach 7th  graders, and 8th graders.

Some people look like they’re in pain…wincing, wide-eyed and a little nervous.
Some just tell me they’re sorry.
Well, don’t be.
Teens are amazing.
They can be weird and a little emotional, but I know a lot of adults that are that way too.
But the coolest thing, is that they teach me every single day.
They remind me of what it was like to be their age and struggling to find out who I should be.

So what is beautiful to them?
(These sound a lot like the things bouncing around in my head.)

Here is what they said.
• Flowers blooming in the morning
• Sound of a beating heart
• Draining a 3-pointer
• The sound of the ocean waves crashing on the shore
• Feeling the rain hit my palm.
• A warm blanket
• All that’s left of nature, like a moss covered forest or an eroded canyon.
• The swish of a basketball net
• The fall when leaves are everywhere and the trees are orange.
• The smell of burnt rubber and an engine revving.
• Skateboards landin
• The bounce of a basketball
• Rain falling into a puddle
• The smell of wet dirt
• Soccer ball bouncing off someone’s shin-guards
• Nails tapping on a desk
• Pages in a book turning
• Twinkling lights at Christmas
• Orange lady bugs
• Trees covered in snow
• Art
• Being on the tube with the waves splashing up at you
• Ants swarming around a piece of food on the ground
• A cat’s purr
• The squeak from the hamster wheel
• The crack when 2 helmets hit during a football game
• Breakdancing
• Seeing salmon swimming freely
• Portland, at night
• Fireworks lighting up the night
• My family
• Waterfalls
• Hiking through nature
• The sound of bubbles of air escaping from the water
• When you see the white snow glisten and snowflakes fall down
• Fire popping
• The sound of a car going slowing over gravel
• When I look up and see the beautiful sky with a sideline of trees.
• Lightning
• I enjoy the sound of hail. It sounds like a big crowd of people clapping
• Me and my dogs’ hair- I love to feel the way my fingers flow through it.
• The sound of waves crashing down when it’s completely quiet
• Pouring rain, when min-streams form on the hills
• Whistling wind
• Thunder
• The roar of a crowd
• The smell of vanilla

And…this…
“When I kick the soccer ball, I hear it first loud. It’s exciting, and breath-taking. Then it flies up high
and far. It leaves me thinking and anticipating where it might go. I see it soar through the air then
with one swift thud it hits the grass. One, two, three, four bounces, and it stops. So beautifully into
the goal or wherever it was going.”

Help show the kids in your life what the word “beauty” really means, and not perpetuate the type of beauty that media portrays.
There is so much beauty.
Look around you…
Squint if you must…
See it?!
Right there!
Wow. Isn't it amazing?
Yeah, I think so too.