Today the theme for our leadership talk was “listening.” To supplement the points that Jonathan and Mrs. Fenchel were sharing, we watched a TED talk in which the speaker explained one specific tip for opening our ears: Take three minutes every day of silence to just listen to your surroundings.

So tonight, while sitting outside, looking at the stars, the lake, and all of the surrounding towns with their bright, shining lights, we did it. During those three minutes, I picked out so many sounds that I hadn’t paid attention to previously. They weren’t foreign sounds; they weren’t any more exotic than the bark of a dog or the revving of a car engine. But when I stopped to truly listen to them, I found that they were beautiful music to my ears. Those sounds were beautiful because they only happen once in a lifetime, and they all have life in them. Sometimes we just need to stop and close our mouths and open our ears wide to realize that God’s beauty lies in each and every small thing, even the small things that we tend to forget.