Outsider

Seeing a picture of my baby nephew with his humongous cheeks and beautiful, heart-warming toothless smile.

A beautiful toddler reaching out her arms to me, wanting to be held after taking a fall. And her huge grin when I swung her around.

A little girl, walking down the street in her plaid skirt & beanie - long curly hair bouncing with each step - holding tightly to her daddy's hand.

A young girl with a punk-rock-ish style dancing to the music on her ipod as she walked along - seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world.

Waving at a passing firetruck and all four young men inside craning their necks and waving back with big smiles.

A group of guys standing outside a sports bar, laughing - taking a break from watching football to have a smoke.

A middle-aged couple dropping another couple off at their car - warm, friendly embraces all around before parting ways.

A woman opening up to me, a stranger, about the stress and weariness from being her mother's caretaker - who clearly was so desperate & grateful to have someone listen to her.

An elderly lady in the passenger seat of a car - holding her little sweater-clad puppy.

The toothless smile of an old, homeless man with the greatest smile lines around his kind eyes.

These are things that made me smile today. I wish I had my camera to capture each of these moments. I wish I could have stopped and talked to each and every one of these people in depth. I wondered about their lives, their families and even what their day would hold. Were they happy? Were they strong? Do they know how much they are loved? Why were they where they were in that moment?

Life is so beautiful - at every stage - from the toothless smile of an innocent baby who has yet to experience heartbreak, love, joy, sorrow, failure, success, shame, pride, loss or gain to the weathered smile of one with a lifetime of these experiences. Sometimes life is so unspeakably painful and it's hard to see any beauty through the smoke and ashes. Sometimes life is chaotic - there seems to be no rhyme or reason, no consistency or continuity, no symmetry or sense. Sometimes life is simply a mess. But from the right vantage point, with the right perspective, it all comes together and makes sense and is truly, breathtakingly beautiful.