“Make your tiny corner of the world beautiful, even for one brief, anonymous moment. It matters.” – Nichole Nordeman
A couple of weeks ago, I looked through photos on Instagram and saw a photo taken by Nichole Nordeman in the O’Hare Airport in Chicago. She had been stranded there on her way home to somewhere in the South, missed her kids, and simply wanted to get home. But because of Hurricane Ivan plowing its way up Florida and into Georgia, most flights in the US were grounded.
The video she took was quick and crooked, but the atmosphere was palpable. In the crowded airport, a young man with a backpack sat down at a piano and began playing music. And in the crowds, stranded, frustrated, for a brief moment, there was beauty.
Nichole says she realized then the value of beauty. Somehow, beauty can take a dire situation, cause us to pause and reevaluate, and adjust what had been soured. Beauty can soothe a wounded heart, bring respite to a weary soul, and alleviate the heaviest of burdens. Life is better with some form of beauty to lift us.
Why Beauty Matters
For some reason, the words Nichole wrote, above, struck a chord with me. I immediately wrote them down and now have the phrase hanging at my desk at work and in my kitchen at home. It is the absolute truth:
Make your tiny corner of the world beautiful, even for one brief, anonymous moment. It matters.
It does matter. And remembering that on a daily basis, moment by moment, resonates with me. It is, and always has been, my life purpose. To create, capture, and share beauty.
Some pieces I have been working on lately have been:
- a new manuscript, one I am very excited about
- several new canvases
- and about a thousand new photographs of many settings and things
Creating fuels me. I can’t not create.
The times when my creative fuel runs a bit dry is when I listen to what the world is saying about the worth and value of created things — if no one takes notice, then it must not be worthwhile.
I wholeheartedly disagree. If it creates beauty in a tiny corner of the world, then it is worthwhile. It matters.
Because the act of creating has changed our own selves, and perhaps touched others in mysterious ways. We don’t know. We may never know. But that isn’t the point–to know how many followers click like, etc. The unknowing doesn’t make the impact of what we have created insignificant. The unknowing is part of the beauty.
Beauty matters.
