Nature, Not So Beautiful.

Orange and Lavender? Not a colour combination I would have chosen myself, but Nature has beauty standards all its own. I am sometimes convinced that Nature could even make sandals worn with socks look beautiful.

I mean, when has Nature disappointed? When have you been in a field brimming with flowers and thought: “There’s too much going on here. Too many colours.”. When have you seen a running stream and said: “The stream is too narrow. The water pressure too low and the pebbles on either side could be more polished.”. When has Nature been too much or not enough?

But then, when we are ourselves part of this Nature we so glorify, why are we not this accepting? Why are our noses too big, our lips too thin and our faces not symmetrical enough? We do not compare every river to the Nile nor every mountain to Mt Everest, then why are we never enough on our own, and must always compare to those who the world says are the prettiest?

And who decided that Orange and Lavender could not go together? Who decided that people could not all look different and be beautiful?

Maybe Ugly Doesn’t Exist

Illustration Source: http://www.favim.com

“You are beautiful because others are ugly.” is never something you hear people say. It’s a rule that does not apply — but somehow the opposite does?

Somehow, you can be ugly because others are beautiful. Because ‘others’ look and are a certain way and you don’t and— and that’s enough to make you ugly. What kind of Beauty is the Beauty you see and feel if it is this easy to discard someone as ugly? Beauty is not unattainable, it flows freely in everyone. Just look at the stars, how easy it is for them to be beautiful, for you to think they are beautiful. You just lift your head up and the black sky is alight with millions of these little twinkling things. And there is no question in your mind from the moment your eyes lift to that milky way that what you are seeing, what you are feeling is…beautiful.

Is Beauty really such a fragile concept that it cannot handle for more than one kind of Beauty without falling apart?

No. Beauty is strong, resilient exactly because it is so diverse. It only ever breaks down when you pervert it, when you try so subjugate it to meaningless rules and standards.

Beauty is wild, all-encompassing. And everything in all its dear imperfection is beautiful.

You are not ugly because others are beautiful— you could never be even if you tried. All on your own, you are beautiful. And that is not going to change, regardless of how others may be.

The Art of Being Beautiful

Art by: Sharon Cummings

There is no shame in being beautiful in a way others do not understand. Do not hang your head because you are not what “Beauty” looks like.

Beauty can be foreign, strange or unconventional, sometimes all three at once.

Think of Art. There are endless types of Art, countless styles and movements and a horde of disciplines. There is Art that is conventional, Art that everybody will like, and then there is Art that people don’t know how to like, because they do not understand it. But it is still Art, and there will be people who understand. Or even others who want to understand it ,perhaps because and not in spite of its difference.

But there will also be those who disregard Art as not being Art. That is sad indeed for them, as they will live in a world with even less Art in it.

But their opinions do not move mountains. They cannot decide that the sky is not blue and suddenly it is not blue anymore. They have no power but that of persuasion. If they tell you the sky is red over and over, you might start believing them, you might start seeing that the sky is, in fact, a little red. So have faith in what you know: that the sky is blue, that Art is Art and that Beauty is Beauty.

It does not matter that you are music and she is painted art. It has no importance that you are realistic and he is abstract. Brush strokes or crayons, paper or clay, Minimalism or  Surrealism. It does not matter.

Art is Art and Beauty is Beauty.