Pick a random day, at any point throughout the last eleven months, and close your eyes. Try to imagine one single moment on that otherwise ordinary day. So much beauty and truth can be contained in the routines we create, the schedules we keep, the world we travel through, even when we are hopelessly unaware. Be aware now. See one moment with all your senses and connect to it now. What happened?
It's the first time I'm spending New Year's away from all that is familiar and the comfort of home and loved ones. I am feeling tired, cranky, and very, very cold. You would think that for someone like me who has never seen snow, I'd be thrilled by the sight of it. But I am in Middlesbrough, where it's been snowing for a week straight, and where the roads around my house are not salted. Everything is cold, wet, slippery, dark, and as I look up to the sky, powdery flakes of snow tumbling down all around me, I feel very, very small... and very, very alone.
A new song starts playing on my MP3 - Phil Wickam's 'You're Beautiful'. And as the music swells and snowflakes swirl and stars twinkle in the dark one cold winter night, a hushed reverence slowly creeps over me. As Phil sings, "I see your power in the moonlit night where planets are in motion and galaxies are bright; We are amazed in the light of the stars; it's all proclaiming who you are... You’re beautiful", my heart skips a beat and I suddenly realise how beautiful everything around me is. My numb fingers and chattering teeth seem to disappear as I walk along the road, lost in thoughts of the journey that brought a shy little Malaysian girl all the way to university in England... a journey filled with so much grace... grace that is beautiful.
"When we arrive at eternity’s shore where death is just a memory and tears are no more; We’ll enter in as the wedding bells ring; Your bride will come together and we’ll sing... You’re Beautiful."
Suddenly, I don't feel alone. I know that something - or rather, Someone bigger than me is all around me, with me, beside me, Someone beautiful, who's making my life beautiful.
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