Life isn’t beautiful because you think it’s beautiful. It requires no one’s subjective opinion on the matter. The beauty of life will never bend to your mood or coddle preconceived ideas of what beauty should be.
Flowers still bloom. Light fractures and bends. A heartbeat still pounds inside your chest to the bewilderment of us all. But none of it asks your permission to be breathtaking. It just is.
Mysterious is a gentle euphemism when explaining the raging torrents of pain or the tranquil breeze of peace you experience in your living body. Yet, in our day and age, the beauty and mystery have vanished as screen zombies wander the landscape in search of meaning.
You shutter the world outside and hide inside a hovel, a slave to the imagery and colors of your mind control device. All the while, forgetting that something real is just beyond the tip of your nose, but you refuse to look up.
The beauty of life is not a sentiment, it’s a statement of reality. It leaves its mark on each and every one of us. A tugging on your soul, lost beneath your longing and worry, your strife and frustrations.
Pain clouds the beauty surrounding you, but it doesn’t erase it.
Your busy schedule blinds you to the miracle of your everyday life, but the beauty remains.
Beauty is always there, but you must pay attention to see it.
The Beauty of Life Offends the Numb
You don’t reject beauty because it isn’t there, but rather, because you no longer know how to feel it. It’s difficult to sense the beauty around you when caught up in the whirlwind of your drama.
You stare at beauty each time you look out a window, unaware, lost in eternally pressing thoughts that barrage you with self-important accusations. But you forget, life is a game. A fleeting moment of movement and interaction, and then you are ground back into dust. Turned to ashes. Buried beneath the earth and consumed by worms.
Your cynicism isn’t wisdom, nor your nihilism, nor your detached wanderings through mindless consumption to abate underlying turmoil.
It won’t save you from your impending doom. Or is it liberation?
Neither matters because it all ends sooner than you think.
Both joy and sorrow pass. Striving ceases to exist.
If everything ends, why do you avoid the beauty in your life? Why do you continue to hide behind your pain? Your anger. Your weakness.
The Cost of Stillness
There’s a reason people avoid stillness.
When you slow down, you start to see again. You begin to feel, which hurts because you suddenly realize there’s still a gaping wound left untreated.
Beauty isn’t always comfortable. In short bursts, it’s enjoyable. Stay there too long, though, and your inadequacies begin to consume you. The ego kicks in and says you need to do more. Be more. There’s no rest for the wicked, especially if they’re weary.
Because of this, you cling to everything outside of you. You work to become the best, to prove your worth, or collapse under the weight of insecurity.
The search for approval never ends: a better body, a prettier face, bigger muscles, more money in the bank account.
You feel lost and alone with a persistent ache to be seen.
Life passes you by, and you scratch at its door, waiting for something or someone to pick you up off the floor.
You strive to be noticed, to feel, even for a moment, that your existence means something. But you don’t realize the hope you’ve been chasing has been surrounding you all along.
It’s the beauty of life that reminds you that you were made for more. Not more for others, or to receive accolades. More for yourself. In the quiet moments. To be seen for who you are, utterly unique. Beautiful.
You are beautiful because you are. Life is beautiful because you are in it.
Each moment is filled with beauty. Each passing breeze.
Every blade of grass. Every strand of hair. Even the blink of your eye.
Your frailty is beautiful.
So is your pain.
The beauty of life is found in everything.
It’s found in every moment, sigh, and whisper. In every thunderclap, aggravated yell, and sobbing breakdown.
All of it is beautiful.
It’s beautiful because it’s you.
Life is beautiful because of you.
Beauty Is the Antidote to Despair
“We are saved by beauty.”
– Dostoevsky
Beauty will remain long after you’re gone. It’s been here since time began, and will continue until the universe ceases to exist. When logic fails and hope fades, beauty endures. When tears fall and laughter ensues, beauty gives it meaning.
Learning to rest in the beauty of life begins to heal your brokenness. It teaches you how to become whole. Even in grief, beauty is present. Since my father’s passing, I’ve had many moments where beautiful memories flood my mind while tears stream down my face. It’s a cathartic, breathtaking reminder that life is fragile. And if you’re not careful, life will pass you by. Don’t try to find healing in your last few days on earth. Find it now.
But how?
Healing comes from embracing each moment by letting go of the preconceived ideas and rules you’ve placed on yourself. It’s learning to allow yourself to be. To live in the moment, and feel it, wholeheartedly, even when it hurts.
As you learn to do this, you begin to see beauty in every situation: the mundane and normal, the stress and pain. It all contains beauty if you take the time to look for it. To become aware of it.
All it takes is to become fully present. To be present with yourself and with your situation. Whether good or bad, embody it. Allow yourself to experience the beauty of each moment and watch how life opens itself up to you.
If this resonated with you, consider signing up for my newsletter. I’ll send more essays like this directly to your inbox.
I wish you well,
Josiah
