Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.

- Confucius 

What is beauty?

Just a couple of days ago I went on a hike up in the Mission Trails area of San Diego.  The hills and trails are an amazing place to see the natural world, get some exercise, and really appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.  It’s a wonder how easily people, myself included, can block out the simplistic splendor the world has to offer.  In the fast paced consumerism world we live in, it isn’t sexy or profitable to advertise the beauty in things that don't easily translate into profit.  Apropos to this idea is the very word beauty.  I’ve often found my mind going directly to an image of a gorgeous woman when I hear the word beauty, and it’s not surprising when we consider every American is bombarded with pictures, movies, advertisments, and such constantly telling us that is the accepted form of beauty.  Now there’s nothing wrong with thinking of women as a form of beauty.  I for one am completely anamored with women, however, as Confucius has told us, beauty exists everywhere.  We just need to open our eyes to it.

Does Everything really have beauty?

If you think about it, saying everything has beauty might seem suspect.  Garbage heaps and sewage plants aren’t the most attractive places to be or to visually admire.  Some might argue that abandoned buildings are not very attractive either.  However, if you examine each without the accepted negative connotations associated with them, what do you see then?  Nothing exists in a vacuum, but opening yourself up to a new perspective might lead you to a new appreciation for something you once thought had no beauty at all.  Certainly you may find that some things are much easier to identify as beautiful as opposed to others.  That’s natural. 

Creating a new beauty

Now for the hard part.  Take a moment and set aside all you know about beauty, all you expect and want from beauty, all you have been conditioned to believe is beautiful.  Just try to silence the expectations and just appreciate a subject for what it is.  Contemplate the value of the object before you solely on its merits. Practice with several different things and see if it jars your way of thinking.  Really look, let yourself feel. 

Now, what do you see?

A Spontaneous Blast of Inspiration

Maybe you've read or heard about the Tsunami Ghost Ship that was floating around the pacific for the last year.  According to the article it is now at the bottom of the Gulf of Alaska.  I've talked about abandoned places recently, but just a couple of days ago I was suddenly inspired by the ghost ship events.  I came up with a story idea.  It just hit me like a ton of bricks, like so many other story ideas. 

The amazement I felt as I saw the story unfold in my mind, developing, becoming layered, intricate, interesting and meaningful, made me feel great.  That kind of inspiration doesn't always happen.  When it does, for me at least, I'm filled with an awed sense of wonder.  Really.  The idea of constructing a world in my head, with characters, events, histories, feelings, emotions, life if you will, is truly awesome.  It's quite fascinating where inspiration comes from and how unexpectedly it arrives. 

You see, I've opened myself up to the idea that inspiration can and does come from the most amazing, or most mundane of things.  Inspiration is all around us.  We just have to learn how to recognize it.  Sometimes, the full force of creative inspiration comes in the blink of an eye, other times, inspiration seems to be as rare as water in a parched desert.  But if we learn to recognize where and how inspiration comes from, that oasis in the desert can become an ocean of ideas.  I've found my next project, now all I have to do is write it.  What about you?

Reckless Beams of Light, by G.R. Exper