What is beauty?
Beauty is an energy you feel, when someone or something in your environment stops you from what you are doing and makes you realize NOW.
You know you have found beauty when you stop and breathe, ‘Wow.’ And what you are really saying is, ‘Wonder, now.’ (Wow is made up of the two words wonder and now).
There are some places and faces that easily stop us in our tracks and bring our focus to now – the ocean, the sky, raindrops on leaves, a dog’s wet nose resting on your knee, a baby’s joyous grin, or the weathered yet wise hand of a grandparent.
Sometimes beauty is harder to find. It is somewhere amongst all the faces and places we drive through on our way to and from work, between a stop at the fuel station, and amongst the chattering voices and pulling hands of our children. At any time, freeze and appreciate now and you will see that beauty is in everything and every place, as everything is unique and a brief occurrence in the timeline of the world. If we can remember there is an upside to every situation, we can appreciate the element of beauty in what we see before us. Every creation is marvelous. It will only happen ‘just so’ once. We are incredibly blessed to have been born into this time, this location, this body, and this life, as no one will ever experience the exact same moment, feelings, or sensations.
What makes me feel beautiful is remembering that ‘I am wonder’. Once I was walking outside and I felt the urge to lie down on the grass. I lay on my back and looked up to the blue sky. What I felt was beauty, wonder, and now. I felt how small my body was, perched on the edge of the earth. I could see the round shape of the planet that my house and garden was sprouting out of, and I could see we were connected to both a planet and to space absolutely.
As I had the grass on my back and the air (of space) at my front, I felt overwhelmed by the understanding that I was living a wonder-full life as a human on the earth. I felt like my true home was elsewhere in space and I could see the beauty in my experience of living a material life … such as feeling the scratch of a stick on my neck, the warmth of the sun on my face, the blades of grass between my fingers, and listening to the peaceful conversations of the birds. It was amazing.
How can we pursue lasting beauty in our lives?
Easily – with lasting appreciation.
Beauty is a mindset.
Many already understand that we have forgotten who we are. We are enjoying living a human experience and all that is material and relates to material life – touch, smell, appearance, feelings, our ability to move, talk, cry and laugh. We are so engrossed in our experience (and rightly so!) that we forget the wonder of who we are – and the beauty of who we are.
We are living in an era where we will one by one start discovering this wonder, and the radiance within each of us will be seen by one and all. Because beauty is not a standard or an achievement – it is everything and anything, captured ‘just-so’, now.
We are all beauty-full.
‘The wonder of being a human is something we don’t dwell on much … and nothing reminds us of this wonder better than the miracle of bringing a new human into our world. ‘
Day by day we aim to repair our bodies and have trust, faith and optimism for the future. You can join me as I walk to wellness in the private facebook group Joanna Haley Homestead (Journey to Wellness)
Joanna Haley, Author