On Beauty

Beauty is where you take the time to see it

I was on my way home from work earlier, walking along the busy street illuminated by an unexpected strong sunshine when the thought came to my mind: beauty... is where you take the time to see it. In itself it is everywhere and nowhere at once. Beauty is more often than not just a particular angle to any given thing. Depending on the angle you take when approaching it, you may see that of its beauty, or something drastically different. Same concrete things in essence for all to see, different lighting for each in the realm of perception, perhaps. And there lies Beauty... always and never there at the same time, yet far from elusive. Take the time to see it, and you will.

Another reason why the thought sprung to mind today is down to having spent some time discussing travels with people in the past few weeks. There is no denying that travelling has become a much prized commodity for our consumer-driven society. Ever since flying, in particular, was made affordable to the masses, I can see how it led to a modern trend of 'wanting to travel' and 'see the world'. Social networks alone are awash with evidence that travels have become one of the most lucrative and trendiest new forms of a 'hobby', especially in-between a mind-numbing 9-to-5 job and the weight of many other daily burdens often accompanied by a lingering sense of being stuck in a rut.

I felt the bug, too. Suddenly, the rut of my existence was becoming intolerable, and I started dreaming of far-away shores and exotic landscapes. That new-found 'itch' within bothered me because I was also aware that I didn't agree with travelling for the sake of it - but I didn't know why. I knew it wasn't 'right' for me to feel that urge, and yet I couldn't find the reason or argument somewhere in my mind that led me to remain defiant in the face of it.

Stuck as I've always been in major, busy cities it's probably easy to see how little it takes for someone like me to get excited about far-away reaches. But then in the past few months I started to understand the reason why I knew deep down that excitement and the urge it fed were misplaced. It will never be about where I go, how much I see or how much I travel. It's fundamentally about the ability to appreciate where I'm at right now. And if I feel like adventure, or feel thirsty for more earthly beauty, I don't need to go far at all. I just have to take the time to see it.

Between a globe-trotter who travels to places in the same way one would collect stamps and someone who's never really moved much or far at all but has learned to capture the right angle for beauty right where they are, I feel the latter will have experienced far more in life than the former.