Paint-strokes on the Cosmos

I am convinced that there can only be but the sins of self which keep a man forever enraptured by his own distorted reflection which he calls beauty. If he is to know beauty, he must render void his heart of all narcissistic reflections and gaze eternally upon beauty himself.

To know beauty is to know God. As Thomas Aquinas said, (paraphrasing big time) everything is a reflection of the highest beauty, that is God. I've often found that when I focus on myself, I focus on what I will lose. Obviously what we gain when we surrender ourselves to God is so much greater than any temporal gain we may receive by holding on to our selfish ambitions. It's the sins of self, the "I" sins, the "me" sins which keep us consumed by our own desire and make us blind to what God is really trying to do in our lives.

And this is where it gets confusing. 

The more we gaze upon the eternal, the more we begin to look like the eternal. That is to say, that the more we take our eyes off of ourselves and fix them upon God, the more accustomed we become to true beauty. True beauty doesn't look like this world though, and that's where it gets tough. Sometimes true beauty is loving that person you can't stand. Sometimes true beauty is getting over your moping and self-loathing and focusing on others. As we begin to see true beauty more and more clearly, we begin to see opportunities to make the world around us beautiful. 

It's like artwork. A painter sees the world through the eyes of his paintbrush. He looks at every stone, cloud and tree as a curious model, posing for him. As he places his brush to the canvas he draws from his thoughts, his interactions with these models to create the masterpiece which he calls art. And that's exactly what beauty does to us. It causes us to see each human being, each situation, every circumstance as a canvas, waiting to be explored. Every moment we spend gazing upon eternal beauty is another moment spent pouring paint onto our palette. 

It's pretty cool when we begin to see every situation as another opportunity to paint a canvas of love upon the infinite cosmos. So I encourage you, begin to set your gaze upon beauty, and watch a masterpiece unfold. 
-The Albatross