Beauty may be passing you by

For some reason when most people hear the word “beauty,” they think of a woman or something that must be aesthetically pleasing to the eye. While they are not technically wrong, there is more than the stereotype of a size 2 woman, with a tiny waist, big boobs, high cheekbones, and gorgeous locks.  

Beauty is much more than that. Individuals treating one another with kindness and love is beautiful. A puppy curling up next to its new owners is beautiful. Beauty is more than psychical aesthetics. 

Merriam-Webster, defines beauty, as “the quality or aggregate of qualities in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the sense or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.” Beauty can be the combination of shape, color, form, uniqueness, that pleases the senses.

True beauty touches your authentic self - your spirit self. It will give you goosebumps and melt time. 

Lizzie Velasquez was labeled - and this gives me great repulsion and disgust to write - the “World’s Ugliest Woman.” In my opinion, she is quite beautiful. She has a uniqueness about her that is quite intriguing and inspiring. Does she look like the typical human being? No, but does that mean she must be labeled with such cruelty? Is it not absolutely beautiful that she took a negative situation and turned it around to empower and encourage the world with the truth? What you look like does not define you. She now speaks to audiences on the topic of how one defines their self. 

I don’t know about you, but when I look at pictures of Lizzie Velasquez, I see someone with a contagious smile and beautiful heart. Kindness, compassion, and courage exude from her. Those qualities, that accumulation is what is beautiful. 

Beauty is always around us.

Beauty is within the cruelest and devastating events. Beauty is within the most heartfelt and touching events too. Many times we miss beautiful moments due to our mindset being focused on what we believe through accepting what we have been told that certain truths are not beautiful. However, beauty is all around us. There is not a single moment in life where there is not at least a spec of beauty. The question is, are you missing it? 

-Elizabeth Louis