Do Not Forget the Quiet Beautiful Things, Ventura.

By Visit Ventura

There has never been a better time to call out the quiet heroes.

Or to remember the things that really matter.

In difficult and upside down times, it is so easy to forget what has always been with us. What has always rested, steady and true, just beneath the tumultuous surface. What will be with us long after the dark moments pass.

Do not forget the quiet beautiful things.

To start, the human things. No, humanity is not perfect. But in these times, there are so many examples of how close to perfect humanity can be. We don’t always see them. In fact, we often don’t see them. But there they are, off center stage, examples of how kind, selfless, tireless, caring, and brave we can be. Doctors and nurses, and pretty much everybody working in any hospital, stretched beyond limits that now refuse to be limits. Retail workers of every kind showing up to work, though it’s safer to stay at home. Farm workers bent to fields in the dawn. First responders responding. Teachers teaching. Postal workers delivering. Midnight cleaning crews mopping. Pet shelter volunteers fielding calls and doling out love. Business owners adjusting, then readjusting, then readjusting still. A single mother of four working, schooling, explaining, loving, and maybe, for a few scant hours, sleeping.

And this list of unsung heroes, it goes on and on, away from the headlines where happens the quiet beautiful things that make a difference.

And there is the world that is still very much around us. The tiny applause of eucalyptus leaves on the rising road up to Grant Park. The soothing hiss of dawn waves on any Ventura beach. The myriad pastels of sunset in the heavens. The gossamer strands of spider web just off your fingers. A web that has been built, and rebuilt, and rebuilt again. The wonders — and lessons — of nature still unfold all about us as our world heaves.

So, if you like, maybe close your eyes and take a quiet moment to be grateful for a hero you know, or heroes you don’t know. Or a not-so-small, beautiful thing.

And, when you open your eyes, these beautiful things, they will still be with you.

The other things, they require our utmost attention. By focusing on them, we become small heroes ourselves. A mask here, a safe distance there, they very much add up.

We have always had enough heroes.

We have always had quiet beautiful things.

Remember that.

And remember this.

They outlast the dark.