You have a beautiful soul
What is beauty? I want to elaborate on the wonderful facets of beauty, and I need to start with an incident that happened a few weeks ago. On a Thursday afternoon, I prepared a meal in the oven. I was hungry and excited to taste it, but when I grabbed my delightful dish, I reached after the wrong baking tray. My mind was somewhere else when I noticed the hot metal in my bare hands. For the longest second of my life, I could feel the heat burning into my hands, then I let it slip and ran over to the freezer to cool my hands. I felt the immediate urge to calm myself and my body: “I am sorry I did this to you. I hope my hands won’t have any scars. I hope that you can heal this. I will take care of you now.” I was praying to the universe because I need my hands to touch, feel, hold, lift, caress, eat, work, and create. Our hands are truly one of our greatest gifts, but sometimes we need extreme moments like this to be aware of this miracle.
I am writing this blog article a few weeks later and when I look down on my hands now, they are soft, tender, warm, and completely healed. There was no need to google any instructions for the healing process, such as “right amount of blood, cells, albumin, and hormones for burning wounds” or “best method for body to heal skin on hands”. I did not need even need to set a timer or organize a detailed plan for the healing process, because my body knew all this already. In fact, my body knows it since the day I was born. Let us take a moment and reflect on this miracle: We live in a vivid, throbbing, self-healing, miraculous, and unexplainable body that once was smaller than a grain of sand. This is one of the highest visions of beauty I have seen, felt, and experienced.
One of my favorite authors, Michael Bernard Beckwith, always uses the expression “body temple” when he talks about the human body. Every other person would just say “body”, but Michael uses this expression so casually as if there was no other word than “my body temple… your body temple… our body temple”. I like this approach, and by just reading “body temple” I am reminded of the miracle I am carrying around with me all day. At the same time, I can feel that I am not always treating my body as well as I should do. How much do I love my body? How much do I care and protect it? Let me compare it to the dedication I put into other things: speaking softly to my dearest friends, polishing my porcelain with utmost care, decorating my apartment with expensive accessories… my body often gets less attention although it deserves this treatment multiplied by a thousand times.
As soon as I have realized the magic of my body, I had another thought: This artwork of flesh and bones is really a temple, because my soul is living inside and chose this physique to be on planet earth. My soul deserves a cozy home, full of laughter, love, and peace. Coming back to the essence of beauty, I am convinced that the greatest complement we can give each other is not “Wow, that dress is beautiful on you”. In my opinion the greatest complement is “You have such a beautiful soul”. Beauty means to me that a person shines happiness from their own being, and that I can feel it in my heart. Beauty is not something you can measure, point at, grab, squeeze or take away. Beauty is that sparkling when you feel another soul in the room.
Love,
Andrea
Author & Copywriter
Founder of Mindful Mag