If you’ve been around for a little while, you’ve probably heard me talk about Thomas Troward.

He’s one of the authors and philosophers who has had the greatest impact on my thinking and my growth journey.

The other day, I picked up his book with a collection of his essays called The Hidden Power.

And one of those essays has a very simple title: Beauty.

Let me just share a small excerpt from this essay and a few of my thoughts on the topic.

“Do we sufficiently direct our thoughts to the subject of Beauty? I think not. We are too apt to regard beauty as a merely superficial thing, and do not realize all that it implies. This was not the case with the great thinkers of the ancient world— see the place which no less a one than Plato gives to Beauty as the expression of all that is highest and greatest in the system of the universe.”

In our culture today, this may seem like an unusual idea. Even today, I think beauty is often seen as superficial, merely the outward appearance of something that doesn’t necessarily reflect the inward truth.

Yet when you dive into Troward’s teaching on this topic, he explains beauty as the externalization of harmony.

And harmony occurs when there is an alignment in how you operate, in how I operate, and how this universe operates. And when we’re in alignment with each other, with God, with this world in which we live, beauty is produced and present.

Next time you look at something and think, “wow, that is beautiful,” stop for a moment and ask yourself why?

Why did that thing catch your eye? What is beautiful about it? How does it speak to your soul? How does it draw you in?

Because that’s what beauty does, doesn’t it?

It calls for more; it brings out desire; it even elevates our thinking.

We see more possibility in beautiful things, beautiful places, even might I say beautiful people, than in things that are operating out of harmony with this universe and with how we were designed to live.

Within each one of us is a desire and a calling forth to allow the beauty within our souls to emerge.

And you know, it doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman, beauty is universal, and the desire to experience beauty is a universal desire.

What do you see in your life that is beautiful? And perhaps another even more important question would be, what in your life is lacking beauty? What is gray, drab, or undesirable?

Why are you giving space to it in your life and how would things change for you if you set your standards higher and required more of yourself and of those around you?

Just some food for thought today.