Daily Beauty, Day #2: Inexpressible Beauty

One difficulty that I think will present itself during this Daily Beauty Challenge is the actual selection of “beauty.” In each day, in each moment, there is so much that is beautiful (and much of it eludes us). However, many of these beauties are of such a nature that I might not be able to express them in words, at least not adequately so. But I think that these fleeting beauties, the whispers of the soul that flit through us before we have a chance to examine them closely, are no less beautiful for their short duration. Every beautiful thing changes us in some small way for the better. Beautiful thoughts and beautiful words never truly disappear, even if we can no longer see them before us.

With this in mind, I want to talk about music, because the beauty it contains so often transcends words. As I walked to class today, listening to music, I was reminded of the power a melody can have, not only to lift our spirits, but also to raise us above the earthliness of our realities and into the midst of some higher, inexpressible beauty.

Although the music which spilled from my headphones had few words, the music itself spoke clearly. The rhythm surged within me and somehow it brightened my surroundings and heightened my awareness of the wonder in the ordinary. I see so often people who stride in isolation, headphones in, head down, eyes focused on the ground. So perhaps music, or rather this method of listening to music, can isolate us in a sense, but it can also connect us to our world, or inspire us to connect to it spiritually and more profoundly than we have before.

Music in itself is beautiful. But the way it can inspire beauty within us is also beautiful, and regardless of how or whether we share this beauty with another, it becomes a part of us simply because we have experienced it.