The Transience of All Things Beauty
A conversation between two dear friends, Olga Martinova and Armand Álvarez.
Olga says:
We live a four-dimensional life in a three-dimensional world. Your reality is not my reality, and mine is not yours! That’s why the clash is inevitable, that’s why it’s better that two never meet. Is it lonely or downright magical to carry the beauty of the world perceived only by you, in your own unique way?
It’s both, it’s everything. Here is where the fourth dimension takes its part, when we realize that everything around us is just a product of our own imagination. Take the sky, for instance, the shade of blue that you see belongs to you only – my shade of blue is different, it may not be blue at all. Our perception of things is a direct reflection of who we are. This is especially revealed when it comes to all things transient – Beauty, Love, Happiness…
Happiness is the most complicated phenomenon, which can be hardly perceived by our consciousness. To me Happiness is like an Impressionism – a moment caught, watercolors on canvas – the smudges of happiness, for there is no such thing as Happiness being like a Yellow Sheet – solid and consistent. It’s the blurred feeling; in pastel colors – evasive and vague in its perception but if glimpsed once and in the right moment – it’s truly magic.
The awareness of our own perceptions is fundamental to our lives. Without it, we’ll never get to live or experience the true meaning of things. If Happiness is only but “a glimpse of magic” then we must always be on guard, attuned to our inner sense of the world, which in essence is as ephemeral as a breeze against our skin, we need to catch it while it lasts.
Armand responds:
So, if everything is perceptional and we see the world based on our inner state of being then, what is reality? What if everything we believe we know, actually works the opposite way?
I know that when I feel good, I get a beautiful sensation within me that is suddenly reflected in my outer world experiences. Just knowing that – is happiness to me itself. Being aware of that, makes me feel that I always have a choice; I am in charge of my life because regardless of my momentum, I always can come back to how I want to feel. And trust me, I want to feel good predominantly. I love to feel good. It feels amazing to feel good.
Happiness is complicated?! I don’t know about that. What sometimes could seem to be complicated is to put any effort into feeling happiness. We all have creative minds and the ability to imagine. If sometimes I am present in a conversation and I think of something that has nothing to do with that conversation, it’s still affecting my mood. So, why don’t imagine beautiful things…
Anyways, and what is beauty?
Beauty can be anything I decide it is. Instead of letting what I observe affect my sense of beauty, I know that how I feel it’s what responsible for how I see what I observe. However, I also know that I can’t observe and only feel good, but I predominantly can. Observation is variety, and variety will always trigger some kind of slight discomfort, but I always can go back to comfort.
Our bodies are miraculous mechanisms that are composed of different parts that operate unified as one, yet even our cells have their own consciousness. That is just astonishing how beautiful we are, how equal and yet different from each other. I have a strong belief that when we see the beauty within us and appreciate who we are, and who we are becoming, we will be radiating that feeling of beauty to the Universe. And the Universe will reflect it back to us, seemingly to our conversation.
Olga tells back to Armand:
Now we have Happiness as a choice. That is, we are capable of working ourselves up into the state of sublime contentedness, which often is confused with happiness, and go about our lives illuminating the positive energy and the beauty within us. I find it very challenging, like a game.
But what is the prize?
The thing with Happiness – it has no shape, neither do Love or Beauty. There are things that simply happen to us, from within like a miracle. If one could put these three pillars of life into the words, black on white and had it explained with one big full stop in the end, then there would be nothing left to live for. I don´t want Happiness as a constant state, I’d hate for Love to have a name and Beauty – it’s never in the obvious.
I choose to have these things as a gift, not a given. The magic of life when you realize the difference – I could never see the sunrise and appreciate its beauty in the same way if it wasn’t for the pitch-dark night to contrast it.
Armand concludes:
Yes… Happiness, Love and Beauty are a gift and simultaneously are given. You can always ponder into anything that makes you feel good and your mood will change accordingly in any given situation. That’s the Beauty of life…
Observing variety is great, that’s what makes us expand, and that’s the birth of new desires and ideas, that’s also the Beauty of life.
Yes, I also think we can’t feel Happiness 100% at all times, as variety will always bring us to ask some kind of question, to some kind of discomfort. But we don’t have to stay there for a long time; we recognize it, appreciate the clarity, let it go, and go back to the state of Happiness.
We all have the freedom of choice to believe and live the life we think is best for us.
Photography // Ihor Malytskyi (Unsplash)