What is Beauty?
Dr. Noah K. Goldstein, DACM L.Ac.
In the fall we are struck by the beauty of the natural world. The vibrancy of the changing colors, the quality of light from the sun hanging lower in the sky and how it creates a warmer glow and a sharper contrast.
But what makes something beautiful?
From our garden…
There are likely books upon books exploring this theme, and no, unfortunately we weren’t able to read them as part of the research for this newsletter, so we’re speaking from our hearts, and sharing what beauty means to us (and we’re curious about what it means to you, so please share).
Beauty is the quality that call us into appreciation. It’s something that strikes us into the presence and reminds us to notice. It’s graceful, elegant, and it’s real. And there’s something almost transcendent about it.
And yet, there’s a truth to the saying “Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.” Sometimes it takes a friend, or a child, or and elder, to point out the simple beauty in something we were filtering out with our busy minds and eyes.
In our family we have a practice of pointing out little things we notice, whether it’s a speckled leaf on a hike, or the way the late afternoon sun hits Maple’s ochre fur as she lays on our oak floors. We remind each other and teach our children to pay closer attention to the small simple beautiful things; and to appreciate them.
The reality that we can’t always clearly see what is there is reflected in many acupuncture points. For instance, the point “Bright Eyes” acknowledges the difference between looking and seeing. It said to “open the mind’s eye and the spirits eye, and once you stand seeing with your spirit’s eye you will see things you never dreamed existed”. That may be a little dramatic, but we hear reports from people we work with all the time about how they see things differently after working with us.
In the coming weeks we’ll be diving deeper into this topic of beauty and ultimately, be asking what it means to be a beautiful person. We don’t claim to know all the answers, but hopefully asking the questions together will take us somewhere worthwhile :-)
So Let's Dance a Beautiful Dance to this weeks playlist:
Spotify or iTunes