I once wrote about wanting to be a leaf, and while I still stand by that perspective, today is a bit different. Today I think I’d like to be a mushroom.

Mushrooms are nothing short of incredible.

I can’t help but admire them and their ability to grow in the grossest of environments. They need rot, dirt, and darkness to thrive. The places we tend to avoid, the dank, the shadowed, the stagnant, that’s where they flourish.

If you think about it, their entire existence is based around a world of decay. They are rooted in decomposition, growing up towards an unknown destination. With little to no light, they stubbornly break forth from the filth of the only world they know and rise above it. They stretch upwards, even though they remain firmly rooted in their grimy surroundings.

Despite the fact the mushroom’s dingy environment is seemingly the opposite of a healthy habitat, they gain strength. In fact, the more crap a mushroom finds itself in and surrounded by, the more it successfully develops.

A mushroom is living proof that it is entirely possible to find beauty in decay.

Honestly, I hope we can all be a little more like mushrooms, that no matter how dark the world around us feels, we can rest knowing we will still continue to grow. I hope we can keep in mind that, no matter how much shit is piled upon us, or how much crap we feel surrounded by, we can still thrive. I have faith that, no matter how much disrepair and decay the world around us falls into, we can still flourish, and that out of any darkness, we encounter, hope, love, peace, and joy is still able to grow anew. It’s not always easy to stand strong in what feels like an absence of light, but by perseverance I have no doubt that we can push ourselves to break forth from the muck.

We can become the beauty in the decay.

Finding beauty in decay. Photo by Jaklyn Larsen