The Beauty Around Us

There is nothing quite like being utterly and completely filthy, sitting with four friends in a car being driven by a 20 year ol Frenchman, who is flying 100km per hour through the narrow lanes between vineyards, as French rap music blasts out of the open windows.

Looking as we did after finishing a hard but satisfying day's work, we were in no condition to make new acquaintances when we encountered Madame Hubert walking across the courtyard of the apartments upon our return.

She greeted us like her children, with hugs and a "bise" on each cheek, plus one extra. (This part of France follows the 3 kiss tradition upon greeting.) She quickly introduced us to her friend, a vibrant lady "of a certain age", who was her neighbor and had stopped by to pay her a visit while out riding her bicycle. Madame explained to me that she and her friend had known each other all of their lives, but since the village was small and everyone still lived there, this wasn't unusual.

I apologized for the dirt covering me from head to toe as I reached out to shake her friend's hand. No, no, no, Madame said as she waved her hands excitedly to put me as ease. "That is good!", she said. Dirt is good.... I puzzled.....hmmmmm, ohhh......DIRT IS GOOD! Looking at it from a different perspective, in the fact that I'd worked hard at a task that would ultimately bring pleasure to so many people........dirt IS good.

Then I thought back across the past few days, about the beauty that I would have missed had I not taken the time to look around me. There IS beauty in dirt, in the changing color of the leaves on the vine, in the heavy, rain filled clouds that threatened to soak us as we worked,





....in that one cluster of white grapes which dared to be different from the millions of other, darker clusters.......





There is a quiet beauty in the empty nest that I found tucked within the branches of a vine, as I searched it for hidden purple treasure.




The smell of a fresh, new morning as the sun streams across the fields, invites me to breath in this timeless beauty before the opportunity is lost and I have to clean the dirt from under my fingernails once more.