Did you see the beautiful thing?

My friend's five-year old asked me this a few weeks ago. A carnival was coming to town, and one of the rides made it to the site about a week before the event was scheduled to take place. It was a kiddie ride of cartoonish helicopters. Even all folded in on itself, without the flashing lights and accompanying tinny music, it caught this child's fascination enough that she asked me excitedly, "Did you see the beautiful thing?"
Now, she's been to amusement parks before. I'm assuming there is some kind of memory insider her that recognizes exactly what she was seeing. But to see the ride folded up, lights dark, sitting in the rain in a muddly lot long before anything was supposed to really happen, her innate ability to see this as something new and awe inspiring made her ask a question that is one of the better questions anyone has ever asked me.
And the best part? I knew exactly what she was talking about.

So tell me, what sort of beautiful thing have you seen today?