By Pattie Mihalik

newsgirl@comcast.net

When I was going for my morning walk I came across an eye-catching field of wildflowers.

In this case, that’s just a fancy name for weeds. But the flowers were too exquisite to be called weeds.

They were 6 inches high with a cone-shaped head made of dozens of individual lacy, lilac-colored flowers. I just had to pick a few and take them home to show my husband.

He said the flowers reminded him of the heather fields in Scotland.

The homeowner next to the field of wildflowers spends a lot of time and money trying to cultivate a front yard with beautiful flowers. Frequently, he doesn’t like the look of the flowers so he mows them down and tries something else. Right now he has beach sunflowers that are pretty but need a lot of attention to keep them from getting unsightly.

Ironically, the field of wildflowers is more eye-catching that anything he planted.

In addition to being pretty, those wildflowers have another value: They reinforce the lesson that we often fail to look closely to see the beauty in something or someone.

We glance at someone and write them off instead of looking for the value and the beauty in the person.

When we are old, we sometimes get written off like that. Youngsters unseasoned by life may look at an older person and see only advanced age instead of really seeing the person.

My husband and I met someone like that on a cruise. David and I are dancers who like to move to all kinds of music.

So when the recreation director announced he was offering “Michael Jackson dance lessons,” we were interested.

David and I are ballroom dancers, but what the heck, we thought, let’s go learn something new.

Only two other couples showed up.

The recreation director clearly wasn’t happy we were there. He made clear the dance moves might be beyond our physical ability.

Why? Because the young man looked at us and saw “age,” not dancers.

Well, the two other young couples soon gave up and walked away. David and I wanted to keep going, but when his students were reduced to just “two old people,” the director walked away, too.

Hey, he was the weed in the garden, not us, because most social directors are wonderful with people. But he reserves his charms for those he considers worth his attention.

I saw the same thing happen at a recent social event. One woman was there who was visiting from another country. I had gotten to talk with her at length at another event and she is truly a good person with an incredibly interesting background. I learned a lot from talking with her.

Unfortunately, some people at that social event wrote the woman off as worthless because of where she was from. A woman with a nonstop mouth stood with a group of her friends talking about “freeloaders” who look to our country for handouts instead of working for what they have.

I’ll spare you the rest of her tirade. Let’s just say she looked at our foreign guest and saw a worthless weed, simply because of her country of origin.

I have to be clear about something: That prejudice is not common around me. We embrace everyone. As a result, we are rewarded with seeing the beautiful variety of people in God’s garden.

Each of us is uniquely beautiful.

Each of us has been battered a bit by life but we wear our battle scars with pride because we know we learn and grow from those battles.

My late friend Jack Taylor was a knowledgeable biologist and outdoor guide who collected plenty of great shells.

One of Jack’s hobbies was making candleholders or other decorations from those shells.

But here’s what distinguished Jack’s shell projects from others: He only used blemished or broken shells. I was privileged to be given one of his “teachable decorations.”

He told me one thing he learned in life is exactly what I said earlier: We are all blemished in some way. We all have our battle scars. And it is those blemishes and scars that make us who we are.

So, here’s my question for you: When you meet people, if they have visible blemishes and scars, do you see beauty in those hard-earned scars? Or, do you find beauty only in unblemished faces?

A few weeks ago I had the honor of interviewing a wounded war veteran who won a purple heart in the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, those extensive injuries ended much of his ability to earn a living.

He told me some people look at him and say, “Why don’t you work like the rest of us?”

But the veteran makes clear he is proud of his country and grateful for the ongoing care he is receiving from the veterans’ hospital.

He has a happy, grateful heart that is extraordinary in his circumstances.

I hope people look at him and see his worth, not his scruffy appearance.

We have so many beautiful wildflowers in life.

We are blessed when we take time to appreciate them.

Keep your eyes open for wildflowers, the human kind and the floral. We can better appreciate life when we really see them with new eyes.

That way we won’t miss any of the beauty around us.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.