What is beautiful?

Beauty in life isn't defined by looks, it isn't owned only by colors, or attraction, or wonder. Sometimes the most beautiful things that life has to offer are moments. A child's first words, the stellar performance of an ice skating couple at the Olympics that brings together years of hard work and dedication, the smile of a hero who sacrificed their life for someone else, or the innocence found in a child's eyes. Beauty in life is found within passion, the desire to work so hard for something that you have nothing left to give. Beauty is found in those moments when we are empty...when we have laid it on the line, put ourselves out there, in an attempt to prove something. Sometimes to prove someone wrong, and sometimes to prove someone right. Unfortunately not everyone has the opportunity to experience that beauty. You see, not everyone has those moments where they work so hard for something that they know they have earned it. Not everyone knows that feeling of personal pride when they've give everything that they have to give. For me, my life has been laced with those moments. Not because I'm special, or better than anyone else, but because that's how I was taught. I was taught to give everything in all that I do, or to give nothing. For me, there is no middle ground. A wise man once said, "greater love hath no man then this, that he lay down his life for his friends." These moments of beauty, can be found nowhere so purely as in the selflessness of one human for another. Whether in war, or in peace, the most beautiful moments we will ever experience, witness, or participate in, involve that act of sacrificing something for someone else.  I don't know what it is within us that makes us willing to sacrifice. From the warrior on the battlefield, to the first-responder on the home front, to the random stranger, the father, mother, brother, and sister. There is something in our human nature that allows us to forgo our own sense and need for survival in order to preserve the life of someone else. I would trade everything in this world to be able to witness these moments, and lucky for us they aren't as few and far between as one might expect...these moments of sheer beauty happen daily, and when witnessed they are something to dwell on, something to cherish, and something to treasure. Because in those times, in those struggles when we doubt everything around us, when we question who we are, and what we are doing, it is those moments that will propel us forward and remind us what our purpose is, and why we are here. In a world that is torn by hate, and manipulated by corruption, our only shining light is our ability and determination to not allow these moments of beauty to be snuffed out, hidden, or erased. The moments of beauty are what make life special, they are what make life worth living, trials worth surviving, and wrongs worth forgiving. I think of beauty not as something that we see, but more of something that we create, with our thoughts, our words, and our actions. Beauty isn't always perfect, it isn't always happy, but it is always pure, and it is always selfless.