Words To Live By
Sometimes in life we hear a piece of music or read something that stops us in our tracks. It is usually something that has been distilled to a few simple sounds or words that conveys or sums up something so profound it could otherwise take volumes to explain. I happened to once again come across the simple little sentence that speaks to me on the deepest of soul levels, and it validates my purpose for showing up on this earth.
“I am going to make everything around me beautiful - that will be my life.”
Those words were spoken by Elsie de Wolfe, long considered America’s first interior designer. I smile thinking that her words probably sounded trite and naïve to some, but they are profoundly deep. Imagine making a proclamation that you will devote your life’s work – your whole reason for being - to creating beauty. I know that I have made the same devoted proclamation, and after almost 6 decades of personally and professionally doing so, I truly feel blessed that this is my calling. I get to see first hand how beauty changes lives and witness its amazing healing powers.
What is beauty? It is different to the beholder, as the saying goes, but at its core beauty is that which elevates the soul and makes this experience on earth a more spiritual one. Beauty is found in the natural world and the one that man is capable of creating. It can be a cathedral or a simple vase of flowers. Beauty always gladdens us. It has the ability to turn darkness into light, but most of all, beauty raises our vibratory energy, and that is something I wish more people understood. When we seek to find or create beauty we are actively heightening our life experience. We become less earth bound beings and more of the spiritual beings we actually are. If that’s not the most important thing to do for ourselves, our planet and humanity, then I don’t know what is.
I have been thinking a lot about the state of the world, as we all have, and I realized that I am not seeing very much energy go into the creation of beauty lately. Instead, I am seeing incredible effort, whether consciously or unconsciously, going into the creation of fear, anger and destruction. I am seeing people stuck in the darkness that is caused by focusing on division, self-interest and neglect of our surroundings and our planet. That is all lower vibratory energy is there is no doubt it is swirling around us to an untenable degree, and everyone living ON THE PLANET is feeling it. Unless you are in real denial, we are all experiencing some level of anxiety, malaise or even hopelessness and wondering if these clouds will ever lift. But again, I contend it is because no one is reminding us that there IS an antidote to all this – create more beauty in the world.
Beauty doesn’t just happen, it takes effort. Even in nature, what may seem happenstance is actually a concerted effort to produce a targeted outcome. For instance, a plant (on some level) produces lovely flowers or berries so that pollinators will be attracted to them and distribute their seeds. Thus beauty spreads. We humans have the same ability when we work in harmony with our surroundings and with one another. This is how beauty is created, this is how it spreads and THIS is the only thing that will save us. We have to stop thinking this is all a bad dream that will all go away on it’s own. We need to put effort into creating beauty and making it a priority in our lives.
What if more of us made Elsie’s words our mantra? What if our lives missions were to create and leave more beauty as our legacy? Wouldn’t that catapult humanity to the place we all say we want to be? Why aren’t there more people reminding us, or imploring us to do so? Why aren’t we questioning why so much negativity is blanketing the planet right now (and I’m not talking about stoking political debate or conspiracy theories – I’m talking about something that is so spiritually higher than all that manmade garbage). Why aren’t we waking up to our duty to elevate ourselves and each other?
Old paradigms of humanity’s past are crumbling away and powerful shifts are being felt as we are being propelled to where mankind is headed next. But what will meet us on the other side of all of this tumult depends largely on the light work we do right now. If we continue to manufacture fear, hatred and greed, then that is the world we will be stuck in. But if we devote ourselves to the creation of beauty NOW, we may find that when the earth stops trembling we find ourselves in a place more beautiful than we could ever imagine. We humans have that ability. We are amazing beings when we vibrate higher. To create beauty, we can do something on the physical plane, like put some beautiful flowers on a table or do a kind deed for someone else. Or, (and I believe more importantly), we can create beauty in our hearts and our minds because that’s where it starts. Once we change our ugly narrow mindsets, biases, prejudices and fears, we are in the process of creating internal beauty, which then radiates out into the world around us.
A friend asked recently what I was going to do with myself now that I am entering semi-retirement. I know, like Elsie de Wolfe, I am going to continue to find ways to make everything around me a little more beautiful. I can’t think of anything that’s more important to do with my time on earth. These are indeed the words that I choose to live by. What words will you live by?
Sidebar: I don’t believe in coincidences but I do believe in signs. I just discovered that the day I am writing this, December 20th, is Elsie de Wolfe’s birthday! Perhaps she has nudged me to remind us all of her words because we are at such a crisis point. I am happy to do so.
