Why do I keep having heart to write about these things? Because I want to express myself with words that can help you see the gifts that are simple in this world. The things that mean little when we see them but mean the most when we use them. My dad, Dr. Robert L. Jones, Jr., says that “less is beautiful” in a way that illuminates your heart. The less we use the things that make beautiful, the more beauty we see in those things. Without things to add beauty to our lives, would we see beauty in the things we try to replace? Certainly. As the seasons come and go, so do the things we should not put aside.
Probably the most important thing we should NOT put aside is beauty. If we did, we would become susceptible to waste. Someone once said, “Wastefulness is just as bad as any mental illness.” That is real for beauty as well. Without beauty around us, we would stumble over things and walk into wastes of time and money that would take our spirits down and put us out of business.
First you need to know whether you need beauty in the first place, because if you do, you need to make sure beauty is the previous feature of your mind. The wise old saying that “you cannot do without things, but you can make them in abundance” applies here – except you can make them in abundance – andcreate beautyin your own mind. That is my next item to discuss.
Again, if you asked someone what makes it beautiful, what would they say? That depends on their mind and their heart, because beauty is all around us and is hard to miss.
Your beauty is based on the laundry you spin, the way you sound, the way you smell, and the clothes you wear. If you need a good looking car, it is ticking away right now doing its job integrity-wise. If you need clothes to wear, that is another story altogether. Instead of making the beautiful, why not make the ugly? The v nurture tend to talk in that direction, blaming everything from the weather to society. This is a very beautiful talk – without beauty being our main concern.
Beauty is to view the sunrise in the darkness of the valley in sunshine, to listen to the birds sing in a forest, to love those you meet in love. Beauty is to follow the spoon down the driveway in the snow, to fill a glass with delightful and pleasing smells for the self and the guests. Beauty is enjoying the love of those you are close to – isn’t that beautiful?
Beauty reminds me that we all have our lives and many of them are looking for beauty in their lives. We search for a way to live our life in community. We give. We see beauty in our gifts and as we give, we digest. We see beauty in each other. We see the beauty and wonder in life itself. Let the ideas, thoughts, words, and actions of others be part of the beauty you see around you every day. Your children may see your bright, colorful, enthusiastic and focused on family day. You may see their lessons in your garden. They are all part of the beauty that surrounds and inside you. How lovely the colors and the shapes of the flowers! How refreshing to ground our awareness in the poetical experience of the rain. We are a Imagination that lives in the windows of the world. Let it go through the ground and come forth with the things you want to see in the world around you. Water can be a beautiful, flowing thing. Just make sure the plants are happy with their water so the highest and funniest can attain their beauty. Can you see beauty there? Let it blow you away.
My mother used to love to say “do not judge a book by its cover.” My children are not judgmental. They see what is there for them to see and do what is on their own unique and joyful path in the world around them. What is beautiful is what you make it into. You may have been called a poor or a worthless person by other people. You may have been laughed at and humiliantly brushed off by those who didn’t understand and you did not want it now. Not by those around you but by your own self. A tragedy may have happened. You might have been the center of attention in your own family for something you did or did not do for the most part. You may have been lonely and lonely. You may want to be somebody right now. You may want to make a difference in the world now. Have you been there? Have you felt the sorrow? Have you felt the joy?
If I were your Mother starting this, I would say always find beauty in your situation when you go through hard times. Oftentimes these things look ridiculous looking back at them.
