Fortune Cookie Friday: Find Joy in the Beauty Around Us
It’s a beautiful day today! Sorry if I seem too optimistic. I realize that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
That proverb suggests that we can’t objectively judge beauty. What I find beautiful may not appeal to someone else. This aspect is particularly apparent in art forms, as they are inherently subjective.
For example, some people like classic rock music, fantasy fiction stories, or Impressionist paintings, while others prefer rap music, romance novels, or Cubism.
John Keats wrote “A thing of beauty is a joy forever” in his poem, “Endymion, Book I.” The myth of Endymion inspired the poem, reminding us that beautiful things bring us unending pleasure.
There are probably a million reasons why people have preferences, but I’m not here to write about that today. Instead, I want to discuss why we should revel, just for a moment, in the things we think are beautiful.
I used to wake up every day unmotivated. Life felt mundane, and I struggled to find my sense of purpose. Moments like those brought depression, distress, or worse, indifference.
I didn’t always feel that way. I was very exuberant as a kid. Everything in life was new and fascinating, and I was eager to learn as much as I could. Unfortunately, we often lose some of that passion as we get older.
Honestly, I couldn’t tell you when my outlook changed from bland to beautiful. Perhaps a series of events, something someone said, or something I glanced at sparked a reaction. Becoming a parent certainly played a role in my enthusiasm, as did attending church.
All I know is that I see things in a slightly different light than I did in the past. Now, I take time to revel in the little beauties around me. Tiny mushrooms growing on a log, the smell of onions sautéed in butter, the hoot of a Great-horned Owl at 2 AM, all give me great joy.
The more time I spent examining the little things, the more inspired I felt. Looking at things from a different perspective improved my writing and illustration, as well as my outlook on life in general. Even things that I used to find unappealing gave me a little joy.
I considered Keats’ poem the other day when attempting to block the sun from my eyes while driving. Everyone was complaining about the heat we had been experiencing over the past few days. Although I prefer it hot, I was a bit inconvenienced by the increased temperature.
Every day the sun rises—unless you live in specific areas of the Arctic and Antarctic Circles—and brings us a new day. I get to enjoy beautiful things around me, do good works, and inspire people with my creativity. Every day is a new story.
As Andy Dufresne says in the movie Shawshank Redemption (1994), we all have a choice to make each day we wake up: Get busy living or get busy dying. We need to find the beautiful things around us, no matter how big or small, embrace them, and let them fill us with joy.
