Glory to Jesus Christ. I'm Mother Natalia, a Byzantine Catholic nun from Christ to the Bridegger

Monastery and this is Pinto the Koynes. I had never really used a real camera in my life.

I mean other than this one one but like to take pictures. I remember

using a Polaroid when I was growing up and then when I got older I remember using a cell phone and but but not like an actual camera with a good lens and

all of that and recently during our community recreation I used our

community's camera and realized that I really, really love taking pictures in nature.

And this is just a love that I didn't know I had.

And when I was talking with one of the nuns

about how much I was enjoying this

and just going around and looking for the light

shining perfectly through the leaves or getting a picture of the

bumblebee just as it's inside the flower and things like that. I was just

expressing my delight and this nun said to me, the thing about photography is

it makes you look for beauty all around you.

And I was like, yeah, that's exactly what's happening.

Like I'm being more attentive to my surroundings to search out beauty.

And so then I asked myself,

how often am I actually looking for beauty in my life?

The choices that I'm making in conversation,

in relationships, in the books that I'm reading,

the music that I listen to, are those choices making me more aware of, more attentive

to the beauty that's around me.

...