Beauty is a sunny day in February, the opening sentence of your favorite book, the lines that crinkle around someone’s eyes when they smile. It’s unfathomably long lashes against baby cheeks, hopelessly tangled toddler hair, the art of 10-year-olds. Beauty is a teenager’s nervous laugh, the roughness of work-worn hands, the outstretched arms of a loved one you’ve been missing. It’s the memories that a sight, a sound, a smell brings instantly to mind. Beauty is the fresh-faced joy of childhood, the angles of youth, and the timeworn experience of age—it’s the imprint of the places we’ve been, the troubles we’ve stared down, the happiness we’ve known, and the people we’ve loved.

They say many things about beauty—where it begins, why it matters or doesn’t, how quickly it can be lost. We share its wonder with strangers we’ll never meet every time we see the sunset, smell the air after a rainstorm, hear the ocean waves crashing. We share it when we wrap ourselves in the velvet expanse of a desert night or linger in the pine-scented calm of the mountains. Sometimes we see it all around us. Other times, it surprises us, and some days, perhaps we’re too tired to look. Still, it’s there, enriching the details, patiently waiting in the half-hidden corners—beauty will find us again when we’re ready.

And so, in this shortest month of the year, our Natural Grocers family wants to fill our days with beauty, reveling in the paradox of its ubiquity and its rarity. We want to nurture it from the inside and the outside, and for these reasons, it’s a theme you’ll encounter often around here this February. Thank you for taking a moment to let us share our thoughts because this is one of the most beautiful gifts of all—connecting with other humans in this flawed and fascinating world we coinhabit.

May we all experience beauty in the familiar and the new!
The Isely Family