11/15/2019
Beauty All Around Us
“Beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty all around me”—these words come from a Navaho prayer of gratitude, from a person who sees only beauty in the world.
Seeing beauty is not a passive act—it is an active and empowering deed. When you see beauty above all else, beauty will seek and find you—you begin to practice beauty. You transform the map you carry of reality, and which you most likely inherited from your parents when you were young. When your internal maps are filled with beauty, your outer world is likewise infused with splendor.
When you practice beauty, you have time in your life, because beauty takes you into the timeless. Beauty requires stillness, pausing, stopping in your tracks at the sight of the new blossom in the almond tree or the cactus flower that only blooms for one night. As you practice beauty you get to taste infinity and touch your own immortality. You will have time to laugh, time to meditate, time to help others.
Perceive beauty even when there seems to be only ugliness around you. When everyone else sees darkness, point out the flickering flame that lies hidden in the shadows. Let someone else explain why it will not last, why it is sure to fade with age, why it’s not as important as that mess just over there.
Bring beauty to every moment by smiling sincerely. Find something beautiful in every person you speak with, even if it is a difficult and challenging conversation. For example, instead of thinking of a coworker as an endless complainer who makes the workplace unbearable, we can perceive him from the level of hummingbird and recognize that he’s a perfect symbol of our need to learn how not to personalize other people’s unhappiness.
When he comes into our cubicle to tell us that we left out a detail in a report, insisting that the document is a disaster and he’ll have to rewrite it, we recognize that he’s our teacher. Remember what we’re meant to learn: not to overreact to criticism, not to become defensive, but to remain centered when others are upset or fuming. Then we can bring beauty to the moment by smiling.
Give others the gift of seeing the beauty within themselves and within every situation. Speak words of beauty, including the words “Thank you.” Bring flowers home. Say a gracious word to a colleague. Uplift a friend. You will experience greater happiness and wellbeing while transforming the world by bringing beauty and healing where there is ugliness, alleviating the suffering of others, and creating peace where there is conflict.
The sages discovered that creation is not complete, that on the seventh day the Great Spirit was not finished, and said, “I have created the butterflies and the whales and the eagles. Aren’t they beautiful? Now you keep at it.” By perceiving only beauty you are dreaming beauty into creation.
Warm Blessings,
Alberto Villoldo
