This breathtaking view blessed me Thursday morning. Beauty is like kindling in that it ignites the flames of our lives. I can be having a terrible day, yet one moment of beauty will turn it around! It is nectar for our souls. Still, you know how we can’t help but gaze at a car wreck, yet never notice all the (insert car model) until we buy one, and then we see it everywhere? Beauty is like that. We instinctually focus on the bad, until we “buy” into the good. Beauty Hunting has been a real gamechanger for me, so I wanted to share a bit about this free elixir with you.
My wife Lisa has the quirky habit of leaving fridge and cabinet handles, counters, and such sticky, which could drive my OCD-self crazy. Yet, and I’m no saint, I choose to look deeper and realize the stickiness is a byproduct of her getting far more done in the kitchen than I could in the same amount of time. So, I let her care warm my heart. Beauty is waiting to be found when we look, but it isn’t skin deep. While it’s not hard to overlook occasional stickiness compared to Lisa’s oceans of lovingkindness—sometimes it’s buried, disguised, etc. and we have to look quite deeply. The trick is to stay with it and keep going, you’ll find it!
Beauty Hunting is like playing a game, wherein we wear glasses that change how we see the world—with the “side” benefits that it makes us more present, alive, joyous, and loving! While our survival instinct biases us to focus on the negative, the practice of going through our days looking for beauty rewires our brains to see the good. While I’ve been doing this for years, I got the phrase “Beauty Hunting” from yoga teacher Jennifer Pastiloff. When talking about finding the lovely in people and relationships, she says: “Imagine you are going to give a note to each person you talk to with the five most beautiful things about them. Perhaps even [tell them]. It’s profound. It will shift the way you engage with everyone around you.”
I’m constantly meeting awesome people, having fabulous conversations, and enjoying transcendent moments, NOT by accident, but because I look for and expect it! Whether it’s a flourish from nature, moving song, act of kindness, life-giving chat, word of encouragement, expression of love, delicious dish, or ______, beauty is our constant companion. Whether we see and enjoy it is a matter of perception and intention. Doing my best to shift from dwelling on the bad, to looking for and savoring the good has taken my heart and soul from “ho-hum” to “YEAH BABY!” Know what I mean? It’s free, life-giving soul-medicine, which leads me back into the warm embrace of the Source of all this beauty. How about you?
Love & Hugs,
Lang
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