Appreciation of Beauty is Access to-Daily Meditation 3.13.24

Today’s Quotation:

As I experience it, appreciation of beauty is access to the soul.  With beauty in our lives, we walk and carry ourselves more lightly and with a different look in our eyes.  To look into the eyes of someone beholding beauty is to look through the soul’s windows.  Anytime we catch a glimpse of the soul, beauty is there; anytime we catch our breath and feel “How beautiful!” the soul is present. -Jean Shinoda Bolen

Today’s Meditation on Appreciation of Beauty:

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” expresses that not everyone sees things similarly.  What’s beautiful to one person may be just pleasing to another, while what I see as very ugly, you may see as beautiful.  In a way, though, the statement gives us an excuse for not seeing beauty in places and things where it is.

Sometimes, the things I first see as unattractive become the most beautiful as I learn more about them and see their many facets. An ordinary tree becomes beautiful as we get closer to it and recognize its complexity and uniqueness. As we remember that the tree produces oxygen that allows us to continue breathing, its beauty deepens.

When I read Jean’s words, I can’t help but think of how amazing it is to watch a young child see something marvelous for the first time.  Children’s eyes, at times like those, are uplifting and inspiring, for they remind us what it means to feel wonder and to be able to marvel at something beautiful.

If I don’t see something or someone as beautiful, I often ask myself what part of me is keeping me from seeing it. What part of me is blocking my vision so I can’t see the most precious aspects of that thing or person? If I can find an answer to that question, seeing the beauty around me becomes more accessible, and my soul becomes richer.

Questions to ponder About Appreciation of Beauty:

1.  What things may keep us from seeing the beauty that’s always around us?

2.  What’s the value of beauty in your life?

3.  How can we share beauty with others, thus enriching their lives?

For further thought on the Appreciation of Beauty:

Beauty means this to one person, perhaps, and that to the other. And yet when any of us has seen or heard or read that which to us is beautiful, we have known an emotion which is in every case the same, if not in degree; an emotion precious and uplifting.- John Galsworthy

If you missed our last Daily Meditation, it is here.