Tears in Beauty

For all my friends out there who are sick of me talking about how I'm not a crier, just bear with me for a second.

One of the things I always say when people start talking about sad parts in movies, or what made them cry, or the infamous 'feelz', I always have to say that I don't get feelz, and I cry very rarely during movies or books. Percy and I are known as the Robots because we never get emotional at the emotional parts in movies. At least, not as emotional. No feelz.

Then of course my siblings remind me about the ONE time I cried during a movie. Not just tearing up, legit tears streaking my cheeks, and that was during a certain scene in Star Trek: Into Darkness. Now, in my defense, I'm a semi-Trekkie. Original Series all the way for me. I'm a sucker for a good bromance, too. Brothers in Arms. So, Spock and Kirk. Gets me every time. Their friendship is gold.

More seriously, though, I finally got to thinking. What does make me cry? What gets to my heart? Recently I posted on my tumblr a song that caught my breath and held it. It was just....... beautiful. Such a simple poem, put to such a simple melody, yet expressing such vast and lovely insights. Love and loss and longing and faithfulness and friendship.... A little teardrop of beauty.

And then I realized that it is beauty that touches my heart. Things like a child's face lighting up when her father comes home, or unexpected forgiveness from a friend when you can't even forgive yourself, or a wife's inability to let go of her soldier so he can go off to war. All things born of love are beautiful. Honestly, one of the reasons I like a good death scene so much is because there is so much love in them. Be it the sorrow of those left behind, or the love that drove the sacrifice in the first place, there is so much love associated with loss, because if you didn't care it wouldn't be much of a loss, would it? And death, as horrible as it is, is only so horrible because it is a loss of life.

Which means life is beautiful, and beauty is love. And love... is everywhere.

A quiet family night around a fire.
Holding hands tightly, an unspoken "you're not alone."
A small child's fascination with the simple wonders of the world because to him, it's all so new.
Sunlight through the treetops dappling the grass with dancing light.
Laughter. True laughter, sincere and unexpected.
Rain on the rooftop and sliding down the windowpane in the house that's protecting you from the cold and the wet.

Try this: sit still, very still, wherever you are. Put yourself right in the moment, and look around you. Look, and listen, and breathe, and feel. There is beauty at your fingertips, try to find it. It's in the air, the warmth of your clothes, the roof over your head, the marvel of life in yourself and those around you. It's in color, in sight and sound, in touch.

Just take a moment to wonder at the world. It's a marvelous thing that goes so often overlooked. And in the times when beauty is so overwhelming, let the tears come. For a heart stirred by loveliness is beautiful, too.

Dia duit,
~Penny