Beauty Was Everywhere
Today I gave away a print of choice to a random winner. Their selection? "Beauty Was Everywhere".
When asked why they chose this specific illustration, she replied: "My son seems to see the world with those eyes and I want to hold on to that for as long as I can".
I resonate with those words. I too want my kids to hold onto those eyes and see the world with that kind of beauty and awe. If I'm honest, I too, long to see the world in it's beautiful simplicity.
This illustration embodies for me the truth that Beauty is not something we can generate, manufacture, engineer or capture. Beauty, in it's truest form, happens upon us by surprise; it is the one that finds us and dwells with us.
Beauty, as it turns out, is the one that captures us.
Over time, when life's experience has seemed unfair, we lose our capacity to see the beauty that is ever-present and always near. Pain, loss, and suffering throw dust in our eyes and keep us from seeing what has been there all along. The temptation then is to try and generate our own "beauty". A shallow, hollow version that will not sustain. It is in those moments and places where we need to open ourselves up once again. A posture of openness and receiving; a posture that recognizes that Beauty moves all around us, always looking for a place to land.
May you, in your every day life...your life filled with joy, saddness, the spectacular and the mundane; be open to Beauty and all the ways it speaks. May you receive it with your full self and allow it to dwell with you.
