For so long, we have come to define beauty on a superficial level, but as we grow, our ability to enjoy beauty will grow within us. As I look out into the world, I see so much to be grateful for. Surrounded by beauty, I am left with no doubt that we live in a spirit-filled world that is becoming more authentic in the beauty that it can appreciate.
So many struggles to find beauty in the world when they look outside. Fearful of what they will encounter, they see a world filled with anger, hostility, and horror, and because this is what they see, this is what becomes real for them, and they continue to live as their self-fulfilling prophecy would have it be. With this, understand that only we recognize and appreciate what is truly beautiful when we have unified with the essence of our beauty within ourselves.
Neglecting their beauty, they have swallowed a nightmare pill that dramatically alters the world they see. Turning away from the spirit, they have chosen to embrace the ego, which sees things always in a distorted light. With power and strength to gain for itself, the ego is devoted not to searching for beauty but to finding what can build it up in the world’s eyes. Concerned with the physical world and pleasing those within it, it is not interested in the spirit’s wisdom.
Not wanting to be the protagonist in its demise, the ego is interested in keeping the trustworthy source of beauty from your eyes. Not wanting you to experience the awe that beauty inspires, it seeks to keep you in a state of boredom where you ask no questions about life. By asking no questions, you cease interacting with life and deprive yourself of the answers God wants. This is what it means to be reactive to life and to suffer in the process.
Called to be proactive, we do not grow in our life experience if we have closed ourselves off to what it seeks to teach us. Wanting to show us the beauty in the world and ourselves is a willing teacher, but a teacher has no role to occupy without a student in attendance. This is why we must be open-minded in beauty’s presence. With much to give, there is much to learn about the beauty of God, which manifests itself in all things.
It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What this means to me is that each of us can find beauty in different things. What some label beautiful, others might label ugly, and vice versa. But does it matter what verdict is passed on whether something is pleasing to the eye? What matters is the seed of beauty in all things God has created. With the beauty of the creator pervading each of his creations, that beauty is there to see. The question then becomes, what is the quality of the observer’s vision?
See, in this, the dangerous game we play when we choose to have the ego’s eyes is the filter we view the world. Many can see the beauty in all that surrounds them, but even more, they are not. Selective in what they ascribe the label ‘beautiful’ to, these people have chosen to honor the mind above the heart, which is all to discriminating. Seeing more than the reason is capable of seeing, the heart knows it is futile to judge because it realizes that judgment passed on that appears in a diminished light is falsely condemned. Seeing only a portion of the whole, much is misunderstood, and embracing only a part is rejected as irrelevant.
