At 6 a.m.  the sun still slept, but I did not. Outside, rain fell as I looked through the hotel window and onto the bleak streets of Paris.

Two hours flew by and soon we had departed to the home of Claude Monet. We drove through the damp streets of Paris, the city quiet with the approaching morning.

Shops were closed, people asleep and the “City of Light” appeared dark.

After about 30 minutes we had left the city, with a two hour journey to Giverny ahead .

The expansion of country roads went on forever and the beauty that surrounded left me in a state of awareness of what I was experiencing. We stopped halfway at a small marketplace and I walked among that beauty.

The air was cold and crisp. Nature was awaking from its slumber, the the sun rose, the birds chirped and the trees propped up with life as dew fell from  their leaves.

It continued to rain as we arrived, but soon it would subside. The town seemed beautiful in a simple fashion.

As I breathed in the sweet air, I felt awake and free. We ran through the cobblestone streets, our shoes clacking against the stone. I stopped, there it was.

I looked at the entrance waiting and imagining the treasures would lie inside.  I took a deep breath and walked through the ivy-lined doorway.

The smell of flowers overwhelmed me. Everything looked so bright and delicate. I walked through the aisles of greenery and then into Monet’s home.

I stepped where he had stepped, I breathed the air he had breathed and I had seen what had inspired him so much. His home exactly how he had left it, untouched in its pristine beauty.

The lily pond had exceeded my expectations. It contained pathways with cutoffs, surrounded by hundreds of bamboo trees.

As I navigated the walkways, a drop of water fell from a tree and landed on my cheek. As I whisked it away, something caught me eye.

It happened to be a butterfly fluttering it’s wings through the air, and at that moment I felt like that butterfly, free and burgeoning with life.

Experiencing that type of natural, God-made beauty changed the way I perceive things and opened my eyes to everything in the world.  We miss miracles that occur every day, like life.

Giverny made me wonder about the world and about the beauty we miss , and take for granted even though it is right before our eyes.

I had seen the beauty of the world, I had held it in my hand and captured it on film.