Yesterday, under the blue skies, and the calm ocean backdrop of beautiful Rockport, my next-door neighbor hosted an outdoor wedding for their niece. And there for the first time in over a year, I caught a glimpse of people looking beautiful and enjoying a celebration of love – They all looked pretty spiffy in their cocktail dresses and tuxedoes. Even the family dog was wearing a ribbon.
There's something wonderful about a formal event where everyone looks their very best. It's a day when people make a concerted effort to step out of their jeans, t-shirts, sweatpants, and sneakers, and slip into their most beautiful physical selves. It's a moment to get a glimpse of their potential for showing up beautiful, elegant, and perfectly groomed. And it's an opportunity to see how each person gets to express that potential in their own unique way.
I'm a true believer that we are all beautiful. Not just physically, but beautiful in the purest sense-- in our heart and soul. That pure beauty is there within all of us. Indeed, our truest self is breathtakingly beautiful.
The problem is that our true self gets obscured and covered over when we innocently engage in gossip, smallness, jealousy, lack of forgiveness, resentment, and a myriad of other human emotions. They cover us over and disguise our true nature in the same way a frumpy pair of sweatpants can hide a beautiful body shape.
Michelangelo said that whenever he began carving a statue, he believed that God had already created the statue. He claimed that he saw the angel in the marble, and his job was to carve away the excess marble to set the angel free.
It's no different with us. In the same way that we take the time to bathe, dress, and adorn our bodies for a black-tie event, can you imagine if we decided to drop the ugly, petty, and limiting thoughts that keep us small and ordinary. Can you imagine if we began to “see” these emotions for what they are?
The next time you find yourself judging or arguing with others, remind yourself that they are by nature beautiful in their heart and soul, and they have just forgotten who they really are. Send them your love and forgiveness. And then notice what happens to YOU. One thing you can be sure of: You will unleash your beauty.
I always cry at weddings. It’s a happy cry. And when I stopped to peek in at my neighbor’s event, I felt that happy cry sweep over me as I was reminded after a long COVID year, how much I have missed people – how much I have missed the opportunity to celebrate love and life, and to truly see people for who they are.
Our truest self is breathtakingly beautiful. That’s why I cried.