Beauty is an inside job.
The best way to find our Beauty is not by looking outside ourselves, by focussing on externals. Nor is it found in the preoccupation with comparison, copying, or trying to be something different than we are.
Beauty is an inside job. It involves embracing your worth, all of you—body, soul, and spirit—as you are right now, not who you could be if you didn’t have that scar, if you weighed less, or if those ‘flaws’ were gotten rid of.
It’s an inside job because I cannot convince you that you are Beauty, not through clever quips, or quotes, and not by poems and positing. Not by neuroscience, counselling theory, philosophy, or compelling arguments either. The dominant cultural messages are powerful enough to discredit all my trying, and all of your trying, too. Nonetheless, I make this claim:
You live. You are Beauty.
It’s as simple as that. But it’s not easy, obviously. This claim is not easy to embrace or hold. But I didn’t write, “You are beautiful” (although I believe that’s true as well). I wrote, “You are beauty.” I think it’s an important distinction.
Sure, the world convinces us that we are too much, not enough, that we lack a certain something, that who we are is wrong is some ways or all ways. But that’s a lie that has to be exorcised like any other demon.
Beauty is an outside job that’s upside-down.
After the inside work of Beauty has begun, it needs to be ‘taken outside’ to be fully realized. Which means that it’s an upside-down job too; it will necessitate living and responding in very different ways from what is expected and modelled to us. It will require a gritty graciousness and a stubborn gratitude. Like all renovation and restoration work, it will be difficult, unpredictable, messy but, ultimately, rewarding and meaningful.
Beauty is a journey.
To reclaim Beauty, think of it as a quality you can exercise, a way of life you can reorient to, an unprejudiced approach to guide you, and a humane worldview that’s wide and deep and visionary.
It’s not the norm. Your voice may not be heard. You may be looked over. You may struggle with its meaning for your life and with the slick, subtle innuendos in the media. Throw all that rotten fruit into the compost bin and keep only what’s nourishing and good for eating.
Beauty is a journey. It will likely be difficult to keep moving in it and with it.
Luckily, you are a plucky and resourceful traveller.