The Power of Beauty

Beauty calms me down. It restores my faith and lifts my spirits. When I'm lost or down, I can always count on some unexpected beauty to push me back to center. Beautiful surroundings are nourishing to the soul because they feel so life-affirming--someone or a group of someones took the time to create something that was pleasing to the eye. If our outer reflects our inner then something beautiful reflects back some aspect of beauty that is within.

Of course, it's important to embrace it all--dirty, messy and ugly--however, I sometimes am so bombarded by my own internal chaos that putting myself in a beautiful setting, especially a calm and peaceful one helps me push the reset button. It pulls me out of the muck and mire of the mental or emotional drama going on inside.

Poets and painters seek out the beauty in the ordinary. They extract it from pain. And they infuse it into each word and stroke of the brush. Beauty has a special magic that colors our experience at every turn, making us flush with gratitude when it catches us off guard.

Seeing the beauty in life is a sign of health. Like a woman, it teases us, willing us to engage with life again even after we've been hurt or disillusioned. Few people can resist the magnetic pull of a beautiful spring day or piece of music that touches the heart or the smile of a newborn. There are very few human boundaries that beauty cannot cross.

Here's a powerful poem by Rumi about beauty...

The Beauty of the Heart

The beauty of the heart

is the lasting beauty:

its lips give to drink

of the water of life.

Truly it is the water,

that which pours,

and the one who drinks.

All three become one when

your talisman is shattered.

That oneness you can’t know

by reasoning.

~ Rumi

When all is lost, beauty may save us. it is the candle that lights the darkness and it is the opener of the heart that holds the feelings of helplessness at bay. As long as we can find beauty in the midst of loss and tragedy, we can find the gift hidden there.