Beauty

“She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies; and all that's best of dark and bright. Meet in her aspect and her eyes.” --George Gordon Byron

I truly feel beauty is found in simplicity. Not just beads of dew on a flower, but on the flower that grows inside a cemetery. Not just a quiet look upon a solemn face, but on the face of someone looking upon art or history. Not just the wrinkles around the eyes of an old man, but the eyes of someone who has seen war and peace, life and death, and everything in between. There are times I would sooner stare at a picture of ocean waves than be in them.

Would it be that life should become much simpler to live if I approach it with much less worry and concern? I think so. People seem far more drawn to someone who is there but is simple in his mannerisms and expression. To sink beyond the eyes of others around you would defeat the purpose, but once inside a social circle, that is when you can truly shine.

In my minds eye, I picture an elderly Native American sitting in the shade somewhere in the desert. He seems still yet his breathing gives way to his being. You can nearly trace what he has been through in the creases on his round, dark face. His hair is long and peppered with gray strands that reach to his middle back; braided with a small feather stuck through a leather braid holder at the bottom. As he stares out across the barren land, he doesn't appear to be lost in thought but deep in contemplation. Stone washed denim jacket, dark blue Wrangler jeans, and worn boots, a drop of sweat slowly works its way down the rises and falls of the skin on his face. He embodies so much more than the life he's had, he represents a Nation's origin and the plight of a people.

Holding this vision still is beauty.

Mysteriously is how some live but far too actively in pursuit of giving off a sense of elusiveness. The attention these people receive is typically wrought with frivolity and shallowness but then again, are they not the same? So how does one find a balance in keeping oneself truly elusive but without over doing it? I think it begins in the mind.

Over time, many famous artists have used complexity to illustrate beauty. From Picaso to Renoir, from Da Vinci to Gogan; many have used “busy” moments of life to embody the viewer with a chance to find simplicity and beauty in that captured moment. Much like these incredible works of art, so too are the minds of people who would have others see them as simple and mysterious, but truly are not. For you see, although the act may create that sense, the audience still must find the simple qualities which is not simple at all. If one were to merely empty the mind, clear emotions, leave care and concern behind, and approach each situation with only one thought, then simplicity does not follow but leads.

Therefore I find that focus and determination in any given moment—only about that given moment—will yield the greatest beauty. Yes, even one's toils can show that beauty is not just a verb, but a noun as well. Do not live subjectively but objectively. Focus but do not linger. In each moment, risk the chance to relish and breathe in life you normally would have passed in haste. And so, dare to walk a straight, thin line in what you do but also dare to draw your line where you wish to go. For in that, beauty can be found as well.