Day 43

How often do you intentionally surround yourself with beauty?

How often do you realize that you intentionally surround yourself with beauty? 

How important is it?

I was thinking about this today because I bought a calendar for the new year.  Actually, is wasn't a calendar so much as a collection of gridded pages that allowed the user to fill in the months and days themselves. There were two different designs and I chose the one that had more colors in the design on top.  This was an intentional choice.  I knew that if I had to fill in the months and days myself, it would be much nicer to have a variety of colors for the different months that coordinated with the design on top. Beauty matters to me, and whenever possible I intentionally surround myself with it.  I could argue that the reason I am like this is a combination of years as a floral designer, an interior design degree, and the artist in me.  But I think those are just surface things.  I think the real reason I like beauty is because I'm a human, and humans were created in the image of God, and God loves beauty. How do I know that? Because He created it.

Let's be honest, have you ever found someone who doesn't like beauty in some form or another? Probably not, unless they were intentionally acting against it.  People love beauty, whether it's a glorious sunrise, a painter's masterpiece, a well-designed car, a  melodious song, or a bride on her wedding day.  We are attracted to it; we never tire of searching for it or lingering with it once we find it.  There's a longing in all of us to have beauty in our lives.  But my question is: do you create beauty or do you just wait to stumble upon it?  Why is that? I'll try to answer that question, but you'll have to come back tomorrow to find out what I have to say.

May you find joy in beauty.