Beauty & the Soul

Beauty has such a profound affect on the soul. So much of what we find beautiful is closely tied to our identity, such as certain colors, music or visual design – things influenced by our personal taste. And yet, there are things known to be universally beautiful, most of which are found in nature, like a fading sunset, grandiose snow-capped mountains or the vastness of the ocean’s swell. Somehow the human soul craves beauty, some perhaps more than others, but we all need it in some form nonetheless. We are all curators of what we find beautiful. We surround ourselves with it. We long for it, desire more and yearn to be swept up in it. We want to posses beauty in a myriad of forms; to be beautiful ourselves, to create beauty, to own beautiful things and to behold beauty in our surroundings, just to name a few.

It is almost certain that most of us would fall into a deep depression if we were deprived of beauty. No music. No art. No nature. No words. No people. If I think back the times I felt most sad, it was because my soul’s vision of beauty was somehow hindered or blocked. Whatever it may have been was the opposite of beautiful. And the cure? Finding beauty again. A trip to the seaside. Listening to a song. Reading a few uplifting words. Time with another soul we find soothing. Creating something lovely. Beauty. It’s essential to to any sort of glad existence.

I think God designed us that way on purpose. He is the ultimate Beauty and it’s essence. All other beauty is derived from Him. We are all wired uniquely to see different things as beautiful, but all long for Perfect Beauty. What we see, taste and experience here is good but not entirely fulfilling. It leaves us wanting more.

Thus, I surround myself with beauty, create beauty and look for it in my daily life because I know how deeply my soul needs it. The more I am swept up into Perfect Beauty, the more the soul widens to see beauty around me. Gazing upon The Most Beautiful enables me to see more beauty. Beauty and joy go hand in hand for me. The more beauty I can see or create, the more joy fills my life. Goethe once stated, ”A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful implanted in the human soul.” I agree entirely. My life’s goal is to attempt to create as much beauty as my soul can muster, not merely for the sake of beauty alone, but for what it means and how it affects the heart that find it. I am a seeker of the beautiful because I have tasted of a Beauty that I cannot fully comprehend or describe, and finding imperfect representations of Him scattered throughout the world helps me see His true and perfect beauty a little more clearly. It reminds me that one day, I will know Beauty in fullness and be wholly consumed by it’s perfection forever.