"I Cherish the Beauty of Myself and Others"

I am working on the 21 Day Meditation Challenge from Oprah and Deepak. "I cherish the beauty of myself and others." is the centering thought of day six. These simple focus thoughts can be a huge challenge. They are so obvious and nice and easy until I start to wonder why I don't see the beauty in a frightening dirty man who feels threatening to me. I don't see the beauty in racist red necks. I don't see the beauty in Rambo-type mercenaries. I could go on forever.

And the beauty in myself???? I see some beauty, yes, but I also see very many glaring faults. If I didn't see them on my own, after all my eye sight and hearing are dimmer, my kids and grand kids would let me know about them pretty quickly. My five year old grand daughter who loves me mightily, whispered to me one day, "Grandma, you have wrinkly skin." "No!" I said. "Yes you do." she sadly told me. Then I admitted to her that I knew this all along. Had to take the burden of this revelation off of her.

But, I suppose the beauty I am looking for has pretty much nothing to do with wrinkles. I assume it is what some would call "the Christ within" or the "Golden Heart". We are told by all teachers of all faiths that everyone has the spark of divinity. Even Lucifer was a fallen angel. I am good at looking at beauty in nature. Even the crumbling leaf as it dries up in Autumn and turns to dust has beauty. An old snake skin shed and left on the trail is a wonder. A broken robin's egg is a miracle. But people, man, that can get hard.

What I came away from this morning's meditation thinking is that I have to change my eyes, my way of seeing. I have to push aside the knee jerk critical eyes and see beauty first, in myself and others. This is my intention. I have a mixed record of attaining my intentions. I still smoke and I had a minor orgy with my Solitaire game on the phone last night. I remember a vow a few months past to jettison that. Oh well, for now, for this moment, I am beautiful and so are you. It really feels good to see the world this way.