Have you ever picked up a fallen chestnut or walnut, and peeled back the husk to find the nut beneath? Without experience you would never know that a glossy chestnut would hide under that prickly green skin, or that a walnut was lurking under the unattractive green and black husk.
What experience that seemed off-putting has yielded a pleasant surprise?
My father used to sing the old song “Look for the silver lining whenever clouds appear in the blue.” This always confused me as a child, since clouds very often do have silver-grey edges. But perhaps my childish failure to understand “silver lining” wasn’t so far off. Maybe, rather than trying to remember that “somewhere the sun is shining” we’re better off seeing the beauty in the clouds themselves.
Where have you found unexpected beauty?
