If you look outside your window, what do you see? Maybe you see a bustling city full of people trying to get somewhere, and it just looks like a mess. Maybe you see a countryside with trees slowly beginning to turn and give way to the colors of autumn. If you look close enough, you can see little squirrels scampering back and forth, trying desperately to gather food for the winter, and you laugh at the disruption to the peace.

Everywhere you look, there’s beauty and there’s chaos.

It’s funny how much the two collide, although no one seems to equate the two. The bustling city that never seems to slow down is beautiful in its life and vigor despite the chaos and confusion. The peaceful countryside shadowed only by the trees reaching for the skies are beautiful and yet, it too holds little bits of chaos.

Life often has intersections of these two elements- I know that life as a college student who is trying to figure everything out certainly does. I rush from one class to another, back to my apartment to try and get work done, and in the midst of it all I attempt to have moments of rest and clarity. Moments where I can just spend time doing the things I love. It’s a chaotic mess, this life in which myself and other college students live.

Often, we forget that there are a lot more moments of beauty in the mess than we imagine. They’re little, minuscule moments that people on the outside looking in can probably recognize far easier than we can. They can notice the way that, without even knowing it, we are beginning to become independent and learning to thrive on our own. They realize that we’re becoming our own person and, although it may not seem that way, we are actually learning who we are and what we want to do with our lives.

We may not know it yet, but each day we are piecing life together for ourselves. We’re learning what we believe in and what we stand for. We’re deciding what type of person we want to become and what goals we have. We’re learning who is important in our lives and why they are importat. We’re learning everything that defines us as individuals. It’s a beautiful thing that we never even notice because we’re so focused on the mess.

The outside world can seem a lot like that too. We look at the outer layer of chaos and catastrophe and forget to look further in for the little glimmers of hope.

We forget that even diamonds are hidden by layers of dirt and rock.

We can see a neighborhood riddled with poverty and forget that somewhere within it is a family struggling to make ends meet with parents who sacrifice everything to make sure their child will have a good future. There’s beauty in the strength it takes to live every day like that.

We can see all of the disasters that sweep our nation, like terrorist attacks, and natural disasters and forget that afterwards an entire community is coming together to build back what they lost and to support people they don’t even know.

How can you not call that marvelous?

I think sometimes humans have a tendency of focusing on the negative because it’s so much easier to grab hold of. The pain and grief and mess that this life can cause is a more tangible force than the happiness and hope that rests below the surface of disaster. This life is crazy, and I guess in some ways, we’re all just adding to the madness and chaos by trying to figure it all out. But, even that is beautiful.

So, look outside your window. What do you see? Are you able to see the beauty? Are you able to recognize it below what you perceive as a chaotic mess? Are you able to smile because this world is mysterious in its contradictions?

I am.

I take great pleasure in remembering that although things may seem dark and dismal, there is always something in life that is joyful and peaceful. It’s God’s little gift to us every day.

Nothing is as dark as it seems, you just have to remember to look for the light.