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Today's
quotation:
Looking for and enjoying beauty
is another way to nourish the soul. The universe is in the habit of
making beauty. There are flowers
and songs, snowflakes and smiles,
acts of great courage, laughter
between friends, a job well done,
the smell
of fresh-baked bread. Beauty is everywhere, ready to
nourish the soul. It must only
be seen to begin helping us.
Matthew Fox
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Today's
Meditation:
But what if
we're in too much of a hurry to notice and appreciate the
beauty? What if we're too busy to pay attention to
the beautiful things and people that are all around
us? What if we're so caught up in societal
definitions of beauty that we don't even see some truly
beautiful things because we simply don't expect to see
beauty there?
I
think it's a shame that we so often make judgments on
beauty based on what we see in entertainers-- to be
beautiful, one must look a certain way and/or dress a
certain way, even use make-up to disguise how they look
naturally because they think that isn't good enough.
To me, the word "natural" is a logical companion
to the word "beauty" because the natural state
of things is so much more authentic. Yes, there are
many beautiful things that people make, but for the most
part the natural is greatly undervalued.
When
we do recognize and appreciate beauty, it provides us with
great benefits. It's like a breath of fresh air
after hours in a stuffy room-- it simply makes us feel
good, and it can give us a whole new perspective on
things. It can give us hope, and it can make us
appreciate this world we're on much, much more. When
I see something that's truly beautiful, I get a feeling
that there's much more good in this world than I generally
give it credit for.
It's
important that we simply try to recognize and appreciate
beauty without trying to judge it, without trying to turn
it into something that it's not. It's important that
we let it be what it is and feel gratitude that we've been
able to experience it.
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