30 January 2021
I was recently listening to a talk by Eckhart Tolle, one of my favorite authors and teachers. He was speaking about noticing beauty in everything, even in simple or unusual objects. It never occurred to me that even the most unsuspecting things can truly be beautiful. Beauty is everywhere, if you open yourself to noticing it. The colors, the way the light reflects off of every object, the texture, the dimensions of the object itself, are all part of the artwork absorbed by your eyes. I often sit in my living room in the morning, and as the morning light shines through the doorway, I notice how it reflects off of everything in the room. Each object becomes a piece of art, in real time. But each morning, it’s ever so slightly different. Even in an “ordinary” place, like a living room, there is a silent beauty that pervades the atmosphere. It’s interesting that we often don’t notice beauty in still life, like a bowl of fruit, until a famous artists paints it on a canvass. But in real life, the artist is always painting a new picture.
Rather than looking at the photos of your last beach vacation – next time, really look at the beach. Marvel at creation’s artwork, in all objects, and in all spaces. If you think about it, you are in the midst of a masterful, real-time painting. And the image you see will never be replicated. What you see in any given moment, will be the very last time you experience that exact vision. If you look at your partner in the morning, eating breakfast, you’ll never see them again, in that form, in that exact space, and with that precise lighting. The next time, the picture will be slightly different. It’s like the sunset at the beach. I’ve seen it many times, and each time it’s different. The universe never runs out of creating new, fresh, and beautiful images for you to see.
You are in a real-time, 3D, piece of artwork. No need to visit a museum to experience beauty. You are beauty, and so are your surroundings and the people in your life, no matter how simple or modest. What your eyes see, precisely at a given moment, is beautiful because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Life’s artist is just waiting for you to really take a closer look, and it will paint you a new picture each day. Marvel at the beauty of creation’s handiwork because tomorrow, it will be gone!