Beauty Observed

I don't think anyone can deny that we all desire to be loved by something beautiful.

When we see beauty of any sort, our automatic response is wanting to love it, but more so, for the beauty to love us back.

And I believe that is how we were all designed.

I keep picturing a beautiful field in the northern part of America. One with the greenest grass and the bluest sky. In this scene I see a single oak tree. This is my definition of beauty.

I naturally feel a drawing and love for this place in a whole. The thought doesn't even cross my mind that it really doesn't have the capacity to love back. It is, after all, just a scene, isn't it?

How about another scenario. When we listen to a beautiful love song our mind likes to go to the thought of that love song being specifically for us. As if the musician wrote it about you.

(For me, this would be any song by M. Ward)

We love being loved by beautiful things, people, places, songs, etc.

What we miss so many times is that we actually are loved by Something beautiful. All of us.

In fact, the very Creator of beauty Himself is who we're loved by.

If God is everything, then maybe the beautiful scene of the tree in the field actually does love us in return.

An interesting notion, sure, but what if God loves us so much that He brings us to these Tree-Field type of scenes in order that He might declare His love for us?

And in bringing us to these scenes, its like God Almighty Himself is speaking through the tree saying "I love you so deeply that I made this beauty possible for you to gaze upon".

I like to think God made all of us with different perceptions of beauty that specifically please our eyes uniquely. But then I think again and realize, if we find God beautiful, don't we all have the same perception of beauty?

All in all, that's really God in that field-scene-beauty that we're looking at.

That's God in the beautiful sunsets we see over the ocean.

It's Him who we see in the gorgeous mountains of Seattle.

The wonderful part is that the most beautiful Being that always was, loves us so abundantly that He's made us become apart of His beauty by calling us His own.

Because the fact is that God is constantly singing love songs to us. And each one is calling us Home.

How Everyone Relates to George Bailey

So things aren't going our way, what do we do?

I'd like to say I move on from it. I'd like to say it doesn't effect me. I'd like to say I automatically see it as something that is going to challenge me and help me to grow. 

But in all honesty, I dwell on it, let it get to me, and see it as the end of the world. 

I'm working on it. 

Why is self-pity such a commonality in the human race today? 

It's like we let the world so easily push our buttons. We hold way too high of a regard for the things happening around us and become desperate, self-pitied, souls. Like we're a living song off of an Adele album. 

Self-pity is actually a form of selfishness.

I think we can all agree we've had George Bailey moments before. Those moments where the only problems in the world appear to be our problems. We become closed minded to other peoples feelings and focus on ourselves

I think I'll call this, "The Me Generation"

"How will this get better for me?"

"When will something cool happen to me?"

Sometimes I think we get in this mindset that the world truly does revolve around us.

Being selfish is just so darn easy.

It seems like such an impossible thing to overcome. And I've come to realize that the only way to overcome it is to, well, overcome it. 

Because as easy as it is to be selfish, it's also really easy to actually look at yourself as a selfish person and become disgusted to the point where if you don't share your chocolate with someone, you feel like greedy scum. 

So what if we go above and beyond chocolate? What if when we start pitying ourselves, we captivate those thoughts and feelings and go help someone else, who we know is also having a George Bailey kind of day?

I genuinely believe that when we stop and realize that other people are going through crap too, we can get over ourselves. Like, really die to ourselves.

And how freeing that would be! To know we are actually capable of putting others above ourselves. 

Once we've conquered this I have no doubt we'll be able to run around full of joy and happiness, declaring that it really is a wonderful life.