Beauty

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is an old quote.

Gary Zukav, writes in Soul Stories, "A Navajo prayer says, 'Beauty above me, Beauty below me, Beauty in front of me. Beauty behind me. All around me Beauty.' This is very different from the way that most people see. Most people think that some of their experiences are more beautiful than others, and that some people are more special than others. Which way is real?"

Yes, what is beauty? What is real beauty? Is "beauty" only a visual thing as most people seem to think?

Each morning on my walk and especially when I walk on the weekends as it's lighter and brighter outside (I walk later in morning), I am struck by the beauty of my neighborhood. Some people may see a dated, eighties-looking neighborhood. But I see the flowers and trees and different kinds of grasses in the lawns. I see bricks of all different shades and colors on the neighborhood houses. I see the sun hitting a house for the first time this day and the home glows. I also hear the birds and the planes lifting off people to far-away places. I feel the humidity of the air and I know that moisture helps our plants to grow. Some days there is a beautiful morning breeze.

It is so easy to use the word beautiful to describe something we can't see..... breeze. Yet we feel the breeze, we may smell what scents the breeze carries, we see the effects of the breeze as it blows through the palms and their leaves sway.

Is beauty only what's outside and all around us? Is beauty something we are? Is beauty something we can be? Is beauty inside of us? I don't feel beautiful, at least not in the physical sense. Does that make me un-beautiful? Does that mean that I'm not a beautiful person? Does that mean that I don't have a beautiful soul?

I can not deny that part of my reasoning for embarking on this project was to change my physical appearance. I think my stomach is too big and protruding for any description of beauty. Yet I don't think that artists in the past were painting what we call Rubensque art, to be cartoon-ish, to make fun of these women. Oh, it's so easy to get wrapped-up in a worldly, physical sense of beauty.

Physically, emotionally and spiritually, I want to explore this subject more. I am going to have a beautiful day!