Day 140: Seeing A Beautiful Life
We all desire to live a beautiful life. One that is incredibly perfect and without a single flaw. All of us develop a vision of what we think life should look like very early on and we begin to believe the only way to succeed in having a beautiful life is chasing after this vision. We become consumed by the idea that this beauty is missing from our lives, when in fact it isn't.
There is beauty all around us. In every person, leaf, cloud, story, experience, emotions, you name it, there is beauty there. However, we become obsessed with what we think a beautiful life should look like and miss it all. We base our visions of a perfect life on movies, books, celebrities, and the world of media. Consistently we are shown this vision of what life should look like and try striving after that.
This idea of what life should look like resembles a butterfly, quite beautiful and enchanting. Flying from here to there on the light wings of our imagination. We desperately want this version of life and thus chase after the butterfly, yet the harder we chase it the harder it becomes to catch it. The more intent we are at chasing this beautiful life, the more it will evade us.
The harsh reality is simply this, our expectations of how everything should look will never be met and we will constantly find disappointment in this striving. When we chase this idea of a beautiful life, we become discontent with where we are at currently. Bitterness, resentment, anger, and frustration take a strong hold because we think we're missing out on this perfect life and for some reason we cannot reach it.
We have so completely missed the point. We crave this beautiful life, but we forget to look around at the life we are living. In other words, we're so consumed by chasing after this idea of beauty that we miss the actual beauty that is around us constantly. The butterfly that we chased away when we were pursuing it, often lands on us when we are being still. It will come and find us when we cease striving after it.
Beauty is everywhere, all we have to do is look around and find peace in the place where we are at. Then we will be able to see that all this time we have been living such a beautiful life and we never even noticed. There will always be this fanciful idea of what our lives should look like, yet we must understand those visions will only lead us towards frustration.
It is much better to look around you and see that all the imperfections and flaws come together with the strengths and virtues to create beauty. Life can never be perfect and our life will never truly look like the vision we have in our mind. It is unfortunate, but the sooner we come to realize this the sooner we will realize life is still worth living. That is because it holds an imperfect beauty unlike anything else in existence.
Only in the realization that life is indeed beautiful and wonderful in this very moment will we find contentment and joy with living. Life is beautiful, but only when we cease striving and look for the beauty. We must learn to look up and around and see the beauty instead of seeking it out. Like a butterfly it will come and find us when we rest in the peace of the moment. The more we see the more we will find.
I created these two images as a little mini series to interpret the theme of beauty in life. I wanted to show that while we chase after the butterfly it will only fly further and faster away from us. Yet when we sit and we observe the world, it will come a rest gently near us.
Beauty is like this butterfly. All around us, in every situation whether it appears good or bad, there is beauty to be discovered. We simply have to have our eyes open, there will be a difference between seeking and seeing. When we seek it is because we do not believe it is there, when we see we realize it was there all along. I challenge you to see your life as so incredibly beautiful, because it really is.
Until Next Time,
Lillian Merritt
(Receive)
Peace settles in as the striving fades away and the seeking shifts into noticing. The grass sways in the breeze and the clouds drift away with their brilliant hues, this beauty being now noticed. Carried on weightless wings, the butterfly approaches bringing with it all that has been sought after for so long.