Imagine, if you will, entering a relationship with a beautiful lover. Now, please don't get all freaked out if you're already married or partnered. I promise, there's no cheating necessary... in fact, this new lover will actually enhance your existing relationships, far from threatening them! So let's just go with this little thought-experiment, shall we? ❤️

This new lover I'm talking about isn't a person -- it's actually a force, a power, and a defining characteristic, in and of itself. And the best way I can explain that is to say that this new lover shows up in a variety of settings and circumstances in your life. Sometimes you see this new lover in the way the sunlight hits your child's hair, seeming to illuminate her face from the inside out. Sometimes you experience it in the joyful camaraderie between you and your colleagues, in the midst of a successful collaboration. Sometimes it shows up in a gorgeous magnolia tree, or in the way a juicy steak appeals to your hunger after a long, depleting workout.

Beauty takes many forms, after all.

But the common denominator between all these experiences is this: when your new lover shows up, its beauty gets your attention in a delightful way. That's because beauty is an emotional stimulus that kicks down the door of your everyday experience, awakening your senses and interrupting your usual train of anxious thoughts. Suddenly, instead of being stuck inside your own mental echo chamber, you're experiencing an intimate feeling of connection to whatever it is that you're finding beautiful -- whether that's a person, place, thing, or idea. 💡

And that's the most beautiful thing about this beautiful new lover. (Spoiler, the lover is True Love itself!) True Love's beauty gets you noticing and connected to the world around you, in a refreshing and exciting way. I'm even going to venture to say that BEAUTY is the quality of True Love that initially pulls you out of yourself, and into this loving connection. ❤️

How deeply you end up venturing into that True Love connection is up to you. You could go all the way with it, of course, and take the Journey Deep Into the Heart of True Love -- the journey that will allow you to follow all the delicious little rabbit holes that your experiences of beauty take you down. Or.... you could move on quickly by dismissing your moment of beauty as some meaningless diversion, perhaps even telling yourself that moments of beauty never last. (To which I say: perhaps not, but there's always another beautiful experience around the corner, waiting for you to take notice and connect to it through your appreciation. ☺️)

But I'll also venture to say that beauty connects you to YOURSELF, even if it's just one or two precious moments that you allow yourself to stay present in any given beautiful feeling. That's because beauty is a deeply personal experience. What registers as beautiful for one person may fall flat for another. Not everybody likes magnolia trees, or eats steak.