beauty

What is beauty? Is it in the eye or the ear or the spirit of the beholder? I believe so. Dictionary.com defines beauty as:

1. the quality present in a thing or person that gives intense pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind, whether arising from sensory manifestations (as shape, color, sound, etc.), a meaningful design or pattern, or something else (as a personality in which high spiritual qualities are manifest).

There are many things that I find beautiful in life. Here are a few that I encountered this summer so far:

1) The endless palette of green used in nature
2) The smile of a 4 year old with a mischievous grin
3) The face of a 91 year old woman with years of laughter, tears and wisdom etched on her face
4) A Saskatchewan thunderstorm
5) The pink light on the mountains at around 10 p.m. on a summer evening in Banff
6) The vulnerability of tears among friends
7) The face of a groom watching his bride come down the aisle
8) Matthew Barber's voice when he sings "Where the river bends"
9) Jim Cuddy smiling at me
10) New Canadians celebrating Canada Day and their new lives in Canada