Where to Find Beauty

Lately, I've been reading a wonderful little book on beauty called "The Invisible Embrace Beauty: Rediscovering the True Sources of Compassion, Serenity and Hope" and it is having an enormous impact on my daily living. So much so that I am compelled to share a little of it here with you.

So you know that phrase "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"? Turns out, I've been reading it wrong all this time. Have you? I always presumed it was about subjectivity and how the aesthetic judgments of individuals differ from person to person but what if that's not the meaning at all? What if the "eye of the beholder" means that you need to alter your visual perceptions of the world to encounter beauty on a regular basis? This is one of the primary questions O'Donohue is asking in this book. 

I have been on the look out for beauty every single day since beginning the book and it turns out it's sitting there around every single corner of my life but I have to remind myself to do it. It doesn't come to me automatically to seek out the beautiful in the world. However, I've noticed of late that this is not the case for my kids. They seem not only to bump into beauty on an astonishingly frequent basis but I'm beginning to think - beauty has a way of finding them! So here are a few images of my children finding beauty and a few quotations from the book to inspire you! 

Mushroom in the Lawn

There is something in our clay nature that needs to
​continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world.
It helps us remember who we are and why were are here."

Leaf Pile

If our style of looking becomes beautiful,
​then beauty will become visible and shine forth for us." 

Shadows and Reeds

When you regain a sense of your life as a journey of discovery,
​you return to rhythm with yourself."

I realize that most of these photos are of us in nature and of course it's true that beauty is so easily found there when you are on the lookout for it. However, moments of beauty  are not limited to nature trails! The way your parent places a spoon beside a bowl full of soup, the well worn spine of a favourite book, the tip of your husband's tongue when he's concentrating. I am learning and finding. Every day. Where is beauty hiding in your life?