A beauty on your earth is a shadow of the beauty of
our heaven, and it’s a bitter thing to have a blindness for beauty on
earth, for it makes a longer teaching to see the beauties of heaven."
Spoken by an Irish spirit in the book The Boy who Saw True (anonymous
author).
I have been counseling individuals, couples, families
and business partners for the last 35 years, and am the author of eight
published books. Since my work is spiritually based, I have developed
many ways of helping people open their hearts to love. Opening to beauty
is one of those way.
I have always appreciated beauty. Since
I’ve been a small child, I’ve collect beautiful things - shells, rocks,
wood, as well as works of art, and there are always lots of plants
around. There is nowhere in my environment where there is not something
beautiful to look at, both inside and outside in nature. When I walk
through my home and the land around it, my heart fills with awe and love
as I appreciate the beauty around me. I’ve done this so automatically
throughout my life that it never occurred to me that many people do not
open to beauty nor create beauty around them.
In working with
some of my clients struggling to keep their heart open, I’ve mentioned
focusing on an object of beauty, and have been surprised to find that
many of them have no beauty around them - no plants, flowers, works of
art or objects of nature. When they look around they see walls,
appliances, computers and other buildings. Their left brain functions
just fine in this environment, but what about the right - the creative,
intuitive, spiritually-connected aspect?
I want to encourage
everyone who reads this to consider feeding your soul with beauty. There
is nothing like awe and gratitude for something beautiful to open the
heart to gratitude in general. If you can love the intricate design in
the bark of a tree, or the vibrancy of a flower, or the balance of a
beautifully thrown piece of pottery - that might lead you into loving
and appreciating the beauty of you and your own soul. It might open you
to feeling gratitude for your life and the sacred privilege of
experiencing your journey on this planet.
How much of your
thinking time is spent being upset or unhappy about something? What if
all that time was spent in gratitude for what you have and for the
beauty around you? What if you were present enough in this moment to
revel in the fact that you can turn on a faucet and have hot water come
out? That you have food to eat and a bed to sleep on? If you are reading
this, it is likely that you have a computer, which means you have more
than most of the people on this planet.
Try this little
experiment: find something of beauty - it can be as simple as a leaf, a
flower, a photograph, a small work of art or the top of a tree out your
window. Now let yourself completely open to the thing of beauty. Let
yourself feel the beauty in your body - in your heart, your solar
plexus, in your stomach, arms and legs, in your forehead. Let the beauty
enliven your body and fill it with vitality. Breathe in the beauty and
feel your body’s reaction to it. Open to gratitude, thanking God for
this experience of beauty.
Notice the peace and joy it gives you
to be in this moment with this simple object of beauty. What would life
be like if you spent more moments like this, in the present with beauty
and with all you have? How much of your waking time is spent in this
way?
Beauty and gratitude are soul foods. When you choose to open
to them, you extend an invitation to love, peace and joy. This raises
your frequency and opens the door to your spiritual Guidance. Your
Guidance is always here for you, helping you on your soul’s journey.
Opening to beauty and gratitude, with a deep intent to learn about what
is loving to you and others, will open you to your spiritual Guidance.
