Beauty in strange places

Good golly it's been a long time since I made an entry. Hard to believe 2011 is come and gone already. Where DOES the time go...

So recently I've been speculating at the awesome power of life throwing you curveballs when you least expect them. Most of us fear the unknown, and understandably so. Change can be a scary thing. But at the same time, these changes can be so pleasant...so refreshing...and just plain beautiful.

It can come in the form of a job that you never believed you'd get. A job that is your metaphorical 'ticket' to a new life and new opportunities you believed long gone.

It can come in the form of a beautiful and amazing girl, whom you'd always thought unavailable and out of your league, throwing your emotion into a wonderful tailspin of risk and excitement with simply a few words.

It can come in the form of a poetic and artistic expression so beautiful and stunning you simply have to stop everything else you're doing and thinking about to even begin to understand the full potential.

Each of these things has happened to me over the last 2 months, and it makes me stop and realize I'd begun to forget that such surprisingly beautiful things exist all around us. It's difficult to always spot them out, or to grasp at the fleeting moments before they're gone forever.
Each occurance is just one more reminder to me that no matter how terrible or mundane life may become, there's always something new on the horizon. It may not be right around the corner, but it's out there.
I wish I could express myself more artistically, to help create beauty in the world around me. The talents of others blow me away sometimes, and I am left in the shadows of greatness I can never hope to match.
However, simply knowing that such amazing art is all around me if I choose to observe it is a greatly comforting fact.

I have to share a video link to the video that inspired this post and aided in spurring this thought process.

This artist is amazing, and I wished I possessed just one fourth of the talent and artistic expression he has.

As we enter 2012, I'm excited at what new changes life will bring. What new beauty is there to be discovered? I hope that all of you can share this sentiment.
At the risk of being horribly cliché: Sometimes you really do just have to stop and smell the flowers, and sometimes you just have to stop and let life remind you there are greater things at work than we can comprehend.