An Added Dimension

There was a time when I heard people say that after a life-changing circumstance that they learned to see beauty differently and I was a bit lost. I mean I’ve always seen beauty and realized as Caroline Ingalls cautions, that beauty is, as beauty does.

But now I know what it means to see beauty a little differently.

It’s not that I don’t see and admire toothy grins, curly pigtails or even a well-heeled put together woman. Of course I still see and admire all those things. I admire physical beauty  in those I love as well as strangers on the street. But now there is an added dimension.

When I see an Olympian who runs with a prosthetic leg, I don’t think, wow, that man runs and he only has one leg. I think about how strong his leg must be. I think of the endurance he must have built up, and about how many times he must have fallen and then gotten up again.

When I see an therapist working with a child with learning disabilities, I have a new appreciation for her patience, the calmness of her voice, the steadiness of her manner even all the while admiring her cute shoes.

In the beginning we’d see our daughter and we would all marvel at what she could do. We were constantly elbowing each other, saying, would you look at that. These days I still see what my daughter can do. But I don’t see it as an accomplishment, I see it as her.

I realize that who she is and what she does have an intrinsic link, as is in all of us. She is always breath-taking,, but her fighting spirit gives her look an added dimension. When she works and works and works and then shouts, “I did it” having conquered the task, her face is soft and glowing, her eyes, framed by her dark lashes, shining from within.

Beauty isn’t only skin deep. Sometimes it’s an outward expression of our inward selves. It’s capable hands that garden, nimble fingers that make piano keys sing. It’s strong, chiseled arms that make children fly through the air, it’s full, pouty lips that kiss wizened hands.

It’s a beautiful, wonderful world.