The Ocean at dawn. The autumn leaves on a winding road. A majestic sunset. The end of an incredible book. Moments that take our breath away and bring tears to our eyes.

The yearning for it to last forever and the desire to linger, to wait, to soak in as much as we possibly can. It is so powerful, so sharp, so deep that it peirces every fiber of our body with longing. We want more. It reminds us that there has to be more. Maybe somewhere is life, exactly as it should be. It makes us ponder a paradise that we have never known, but somehow our hearts were created for.

And then it is gone, with only the longing left behind. And we pour contempt on our fragile hearts for wanting more, for wanting something transcendent and unexplainable. We deny ourselves the grand adventure, deny the dreams that were birthed with us.

We settle.

We convince ourselves that the desires so deep in our hearts were meant for the people who have their shit together. Not someone like us, with all our failings. Fear comes in like a wet blanket and smothers the fiery passion that forms the very nature of who we are.

And then, beauty draws us back, reminding us that it is worth pursuing, worth fighting for. Beauty is the core of our humanity. That is why we see it, we feel it, we bask in it, we NEED it.

And slowly it sinks in, little by little as our souls awaken. So often, it is harder to fight for ourselves than for anyone else. But it is imperative that we do so. We have become so accustomed to evaluating everyone and everything on their usefulness, on what they can DO…

But we repeatedly fail to realize that beauty is in the being. And that beauty, in and of itself, is a great and glorious good. We desperately need beauty in large, daily doses to bring us back to the reality that anything is possible, and that there is always something more, something bigger.

We need it to awaken our dreams and desires – not the shallow dreams of getting or attaining things- the dreams of wholly and fully embracing who we are. We can’t love with a whole heart if our heart is asleep. And beauty allows us to feel, to risk waking up, to risk wanting and desiring. It can make us whole if we allow it.

So, my dear friend, if you’re reading this, take a moment to embrace the beauty surrounding you, the beauty that is you, and accept that you were made for a great and glorious purpose and YOU are so loved.