A couple days ago I was driving to work going down 38th Street on the near north side of Indianapolis and was facing the usual elements of busy streets, stoopid drivers, and increasing stress. While stopped at a light I caught some movement outside my car from the corner of my eye. I turned and saw that the wind had suddenly sprung up and stirred some pink flowers that had been planted in between the sidewalk and the curb. When they reconstructed 38th Street they added some of these areas right in the sidewalk where flowers could be planted.

I stopped for a second and just looked at it (the light was still red). It wasn’t much, just some little bushy kinds of plants that had several pink flowers on the ends of some of the little “branches.” But in the midst of rude people and stressful driving, that momentary image of a few little pink flowers was like a pocket of beauty that radically changed my frame of mind. I drove the rest of the way to work with that image in my mind and a calmness and a more aesthetic sense in my heart.

It doesn’t take much for us to be distracted by busyness and speed and activity, but even so, it also only takes a moment to stop when the opportunity arises and take in a little of the beauty of God’s creation and get our perspectives back in line. If we’ll only notice and look.