Daily Beauty, Day #16: Whispering Beauty

As we stride through our day, there are images and words that confront us, leaping to the forefront of our consciousness. There are things that seem to thrust themselves in our path, things that we cannot avoid or ignore. We listen, because they are there. Their contents may be good or bad, or perhaps neither of the two, but we access them because they are easy.

How often do we engage with things because they are easy to enjoy? Maybe I should clarify my meaning: I am speaking of things that lay their subject on the surface. Their meaning is thinly veiled and doesn’t require much (if any) reflection. Perhaps Facebook posts are a suitable example. Why is it that we have the time to scroll so frequently through these lists of statuses and pictures, but there are other words that we never “have the chance” to read?

I believe that we can choose how to parcel our time. Time is a gift, and we certainly cannot accomplish everything with it that we strive to with our idealistic (and often unrealistic) minds. But in many respects, we have the time for what we make the time for. We must learn to say no at times to those sources of quick entertainment and pleasure, and set aside moments for things that require our focus and maybe even work.

This contradicts a culture of sensationalism. We are constantly overstimulated by the sheer immensity of things there are to see and read and look at. We cannot possibly encounter them all. This is why we have to think wisely about the things with which we fill our mind and the ways in which we appreciate the gift of time.

Sometimes we need to step away from the noise and excitement for a while. The thrill always lasts in the centre of its action, but somehow it does not linger into the later moments of aloneness and uncertainty. Somehow those things which are easy to consume and enjoy are not necessarily fulfilling. They please us but never satisfy us. Maybe it is because we are only onlookers, passersby of these splintering fragments. We take from them briefly but we do not give any of ourselves in order to understand and glean meaning from our experience with them.

Some things take time to understand. They wait patiently in the background of our vision, not clamouring to be seen or heard, but merely waiting. Some people are like this too. The things they have to offer are not medals that they brandish wildly and thrust before our faces. If we always listen only to those things and people that grab our attention, that demand that we see them, that are there, seemingly unavoidable and un-ignorable, then we will miss out. We will miss out greatly. We might never know the gifts that take time to unwrap, the beauty that is quiet and still and full of sparkling truths that do not flash brightly in the sky but speak softly in the whispers of our heart.

We need to choose where to place our focus and how to give our time. Beauty waits for us patiently. Will we pause long enough to see it?