Romanticizing Simplicity Part 1: Finding the Beauty in What Is

Perhaps it is a little odd to use the word romanticizing. Sometimes my computer flags the word as being spelled incorrectly since it is so little used.

Anne of Green Gables uses the word romantic now and then, not necessarily to describe things related to relationships the way we use the word now; but rather, as a reference to the romantic period.

Mirriam Webster defines romanticize in the following way:

"To treat as idealized or heroic." ~Merriam Webster's Dictionary

The idea is taken from the romanticism of the late 18th century and early 19th century in which there was a turn away from the traditional styles of art and literature toward lavish emotionally passionate works spanning the arts in a myriad of masterpieces. The entire idea was to make even the simplest thing overly compelling and emotionally intense.

For example, rather than simply painting the maid milking the cow on a wooden stool, perhaps the milk maid has billowing sleeves, a storm raging on the horizon while the cow looks on in intrigue.

I suppose it may sound rather ridiculous in this context, but I rather love it! I don't think it's meant to be ridiculous. It's all about finding the beauty in what is. It's not about imagining what would have been; but imagining the most beautiful version of what is and giving one's heart to making that even more of a reality.

For my husband and I living in an apartment in small-town Pennsylvania, it would be easy for me to go to work each day and come home to a simple meal and an evening of Netflix without any regard to truly living. Instead, I don't just wake up and crawl out of bed in the morning. I awaken before dawn and smile as I hear my cat's tiny meow calling for breakfast. I grind my own coffee and make myself a cup of pour over, then I sit in the window of our front room, and I watch the slow glimmer of light on the horizon as it kisses the tops of the snow-white branches on this early springtime day.

It's nothing special, one could argue. I got out of bed way too early and got a cup of coffee. Who doesn't do some variation of that each day? But I made it something more. Maybe I thank God for the sunrise or listen to the chirp of a bird and try to figure out what kind it is. Perhaps I grow angry at a blue jay who's stollen some nest supplies from a sparrow.

It's not about spending a lot of money or going to the coffee shop down the road per se. (though I love our local coffee shoppe very much!) But rather, it's about taking the time to enjoy the most menial things.

If I'm doing the dishes, I light a candle and turn on some music. I don my favorite apron, and suddenly, I'm transported to a world of soap suds and glistening fairy bubbles amidst a violin concerto.

You see? It's about romanticizing simple things. It's about finding the beauty in what is.

Do you see it? Do you see the beauty hidden all around you? It's there in the leaf that fell from the tree across your yard a moment ago. It's there in the angry squirrel throwing his nuts at a passerby. It's in the late night when you wish you could get to sleep. You roll over to meet the blue moon shining on your face, and you are thankful for this wakeful moment to experience it.

It's in these hushed moments between heartbeats that we find the deepest joys of life in the midst of the greatest sorrows.

So, join me, friend. Let us Romanticize simplicity a little longer.