Do you have days when you feel the need to search for beauty? Perhaps you keep peering into the mirror every time you pass, searching for a compliment, acting a bit like Snow White’s stepmother although not quite as wicked! Or maybe you spend an hour or two searching online to find ways to improve your appearance or update your rather tired wardrobe. But then sense kicks in and you realise that beauty is around us in other ways.
When we are out and about we can stumble upon something that takes our breath away – a flower blooming through a crack in a pavement, a stunning natural vista or a kind act from a stranger. Those are the moments that shake us awake.
‘Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.’ Ralph Waldo Emerson
So how do we find what is beautiful in life? I think it lies in perspective. To remember that what you are looking for is looking for you. To find beauty we have to be looking for it everywhere. It is easy to notice what is wrong, instead of what is right; what is ugly instead of what is beautiful. Beauty shows up in the most unexpected places – the relationships we have with others and the connection we feel with living things.
Beauty lies in the way you fill your days. The way you care for others and the times you showed up when you didn’t really feel like it but were so glad that you did.
When you find beauty, treasure it. Don’t let it slip away. Hold tight to the precious memories, the moments that make life worth living.
Often it’s the things you do when no-one is looking that hold the most beauty – the invisible net of love and laughter you have cast along your way, without praise or applause.
Go forth and find your little slice of beauty!
Be in the moment It says on the tin, But keep hold of your memories And lock them within. Lmh
Notes From Dove Lane 