Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

There are those that seek for beauty....as if to "find" it, to "capture" it....like a destination or a possession.  To those who are constantly chasing it, it becomes that perpetual, elusive leaf in the wind, always seemingly within grasp, but like a whisper of smoke, just as one grasps, it blows just ahead....forever...non-catchable.  

Is it possible that it was never meant to be "caught."  What if is is just supposed to be "seen" or "experienced?"

Why do we seek it when it is in us?..... When it is all around us?... Isn't beauty defined by the way we see the world.  Could beauty be the lens we look through. Maybe this is why it is undefinable by one source (Webster's).  You and I define it with every look, with every blink of the eye, with every soulful stare that is connected with our heart.  

Beauty is how our heart sees.  

Isn't this why a perfectly mowed lawn can be striking for one, while for another, the quiet yet systematic routine of a mother to care for kids, to keep a house together can also be defined as ..... beautiful?

I think that beauty is about being quiet.  Its luster illuminates with the right kind of intentional listening. Beauty is a bath you soak in.  It is spiritual and feels exquisite when combined with feeling.  Beauty is clarity of purpose, simplicity at its essence.  It is in the small things, and can be found in the largeness of a landscape or the serenity of an expansive sunset.   My personal favorites are when you find them in between the mundane daily activities and tasks.  When they don't happen because of something intentional, rather, because you were just there.....watching and listening for it while doing the task.. 

"Beauty is its' own excuse for being..." my Dad wrote once to me.... 

I found beauty the other day when I went to a funeral of good friend's 2 year old daughter that drowned in their pool.  I went to mourn and grieve, to be supportive of my friend and his family.  What happened was that they somehow managed to console and give me peace... they only talked about the beauty of this little girl, thankful for the opportunity to "experience" her for a few "eternal seconds" in this life.   

They felt so grateful to be worthy to have the opportunity to release their child back to Heaven... 

No....  I didn't expect to find that kind of deep beauty that morning, but there it was for the taking, for anyone willing to accept and embrace that searing stuff that only God knows how to give and make sense of.


On Beauty


Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?

The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."
And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."

The tired and the weary say, "Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.
Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."
But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."

At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."
And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say,
"We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."

In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills." 
And in the summer heat the reapers say, 
"We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, 
and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."
All these things have you said of beauty, 
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. 
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.

It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

Beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are the mirror.
Kahlil Gibran

In other words.....You are beauty...  Accept the gift and reflect it on everyone and everything and everywhere you go....and drink in what comes back... It is pretty special to be that free.....