Be here.

“Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”

I read that quote from Annie Dillard one time and, though it is a lovely and ethereal quote, I was left with the nagging question of, “Where is there?”

And then it hit me. There is here.

Beauty and grace are all around me – in every person, place, thing or experience I encounter. Sometimes extravagantly on display and sometimes hidden away deep in the midst of the seemingly ordinary and mundane. But they are always here. I need to stop searching for them and, instead, be present, open my eyes, and see them.

So that is my call: to be here – wherever here is, whatever circumstances I find myself in – to experience the beauty and grace around me.