Look for beauty

A spiritual practice that can be practiced at any moment is to look for beauty. We live in a fast-paced culture, filled with distractions that are meant to make life easier for us. At the same time, our fast-paced culture robs us of the ability to see beauty all around us. When you make "look for beauty" your spiritual practice, the world can open to you. Your own life will be filled with beauty - and you will also have the opportunity to open the lives of others to beauty.

As we all know, the newspapers, the radio and the barrage of information we receive is not filled with beauty. After awhile, we come to think of the world as dangerous, as people who do not care for one another, as a world devoid of feeling and beauty. To begin to make "look for beauty" your spiritual practice is to begin to open a door into the world which also surrounds us, beyond and within the buzz of the information which takes so much of our attention.

How about this? As you walk to your car, smell the air. See the colors around you. Watch an animal walk across the street. See the plant, carefully placed on your neighbor's balcony. What catches your eye? What color do you see on a foggy day? When you say, "good morning" as you enter your office, look into the eyes of the person you are greeting. Put some feeling into your, "good morning!" Even that is a thing of beauty!

One day I was stopped at one of the dreariest corners in my neighborhood, waiting for the light to change. As I sat in my car, I happened to notice a flock of pigeons circling the huge city corner in a wide arc above the buildings. As I sat waiting for the light to change, I became changed for a few moments, watching the beauty of these ordinary - and often pesty - critters flying overhead. For a moment, I didn't even want the light to change, so I could get home! I am grateful for that moment of beauty. I will look for it again, and I will look for others.

Warmly,
meb