Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
And so is everything else
We say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" as if it's only about beauty. But everything—literally everything—is in the eye of the beholder.
The Filter of Perception
Two people can experience the exact same event and walk away with completely different stories. A rainy day is miserable for someone planning a picnic and perfect for a farmer in drought. A challenging conversation is traumatic for one and transformative for another.
Reality isn't what happens. Reality is what we perceive happens.
The Creative Act
Every moment, we're not just observing reality—we're creating it through our perception.
We're not cameras recording objective truth. We're artists painting our experience.
The Power and the Prison
This is both liberating and terrifying. Liberating because it means we have more power than we think—we can change our experience by changing our perception. Terrifying because it means we're responsible for our experience.
We can't blame reality for being harsh when we're the ones interpreting it as harsh. We can't wait for beauty to appear when we're the ones who determine what's beautiful.
The Choice
Once you really understand this, every moment becomes a choice: What will I see here? How will I interpret this? What story will I tell?
This doesn't mean forcing positivity or denying difficulty. It means recognizing that even difficulty is interpreted through our lens, and we can adjust that lens.
The Practice
Today, notice how you're interpreting events. Notice the story you're telling. Then ask: "What else could this mean? How else could I see this?"
You might discover that beauty—and pain, and meaning, and everything—really is in the eye of the beholder.