Addicted to Beauty

I have always been attracted by beauty. You might even say that it is my principle habit and that I am addicted to beauty. When I see a beautiful women, man, child, flower, or sunset, I am definitely arrested. My attention goes directly to what is beautiful and attractive.

Take, for example, the beautiful sunset in the photo below. This was taken in Begur, Spain just a month ago. It’s beauty still haunts my memory.

When I was a small boy, I asked my mother, “Why do I like beautiful people so much.”

She answered, with some uncertainty, “Because we are beautiful people.”

This unsatisfactory answer stuck with me for a long time – until I realized that I had to find beauty within in order to be happy with myself.

Now I have a handsome son, two beautiful daughters, a wonderful wife, and a lovely home in Marin County, California. I am surrounded by natural beauty, even outside my office window. Bluejays make their nests in the bushes there.

And guess what… I still crave more and more beauty in my life. Will it never end?

The Presence of Beauty | October 8, 2014 Thomas Aquinas said that beauty arrests motion. He meant, I think, that in the presence of something gorgeous or sublime, we stop our nervous natterings, our foot twitchings and restless tongues. Whatever that fretful hunger is, it seems momentarily filled in the presence of beauty. – Barbara Hurd, “On Silence” Sunset from Begur, Spain by Jerome Freedman, © 2014

Thomas M. Sterner writes on the same theme:

As we attempt to understand ourselves and our struggles with life’s endeavors, we may find peace in the observation of a flower. Ask yourself: At what point in a flower’s life, from seed to bloom, has it reached perfection?

We may also ask, “At what time in the flower’s life is it the most beautiful?”

What are your thoughts and feelings about beauty? What do you find beautiful? Is it a sunset or the smile of a beautiful baby? Please help me understand. Please share some beautiful pictures with me!