What Do I Love?

What do I love? What is my passion; what motivates me? What drives me to move forward, day after day? What is it that I truly love? I asked myself these questions, and this was the result.

I love beauty. I love art, creation, beauty, and people.

They're all the same in a way.

Each human is art, a unique creation. Each is beautiful, wonderful, an independent, living art, all the more beautiful for its freedom. I have never seen someone who was not beautiful. To watch their eyes, their actions, to hear their voice and thoughts, this thing is beauty. To be with people is beauty. To be a person is beauty. Not in the traditional sense, oh no. Physical appearance does not come into it, or if it does, it is so small as to be very nearly insignificant. No, this is the beauty of a human soul, shining through acts of kindness, through their passions. Anyone acting on his or her passion is beautiful. That focus, that love, that light that sparks in their eyes, their expressions, their every action, that is so beautiful. Sometimes it is more exuberant than others- I myself tend to be more quietly passionate. I have friends who are more expressive. Either way, I believe it to be simply wondrous to watch, and I am blessed to behold it. That is what I love. I love people and I love their passions.

I love art and creation, and I feel it is, in a sense, a precursor. A hint at things to come. God creates. We, as his children strive to create and discover. We want to be like Him- it is an urge deep within us. Why else would I have this insatiable urge to write? To draw? To paint? Oh to paint more than them all. And to have children, to have a family as we are God's family and as He has instructed us to do. Why else would these desires be so strong except that we are all striving, deep within, to be like our Father? Art and creation, beauty, joy, and humanity- we are all one and the same. And sometimes we lose that light, that sight of what we are. And that is sad, more sad than anything, and yet it is still in a way beautiful. Humanity is beautiful and terrible and wondrous and great. Even in our terror, in our horror and our sins, there is poetry, sometimes the most emotional heart-wrenching poetry of all. This is what I love.

And I know you may say we are simply recycled material, simply remnants of ages past, reused and put back together. But isn't that in some ways equally wondrous? That we are children, creations, of a God that does not waste. In Hid universe, everything is conserved and reused and recycled- not thrown away. That is wonderful. God does not waste the materials He uses to make us. Our God conserves. He works with what He has rather than scrapping the project and starting over. So it is with us- He will not give up on us. No matter where we are in life, He is striving to help us become like Him. He is striving always to give us more beauty and more light, through what methods He may. Trials can give beauty. Blessings can. Thoughts and inspiration. Joy, talents, pain, experience- all these add beauty to our souls. Our bodies may be recycled material, but is that not a sign that God will not throw us away? We can be "recycled" through His grace (there's a Mormon Message about that somewhere).

I love this world. This world is beauty. The sunrise, the sunset, the dance of shadows across the land, the constant changing of seasons. Colored leaves and crisp winds. Summer heat, winter's chill, spring's blossoms- a constant cycle of so much beauty it hurts. My heart sings when I behold this world. I love walking to class as the sun rises, watching the mountains dawn. I love the campus and its colors, its people and decorations. There is beauty in everything. This is what I love.

What do I love? I love my God, my Father above. He has given me so much and asks for so little in return- my heart and my soul. And what am I in comparison to this grand creation? I cannot compare in grandeur to the mountains, or in grace to the seas. I cannot fly like the birds or swim with the fish. I do not shift with the seasons. I am stubborn, inconstant and difficult. Are not we all? And yet we are the favored of God's creations, for out of them all, we have the potential to be like Him and live with Him. We, out of all, are His true children. And I love Him for that. For reminding me of that when the way grows dark. For never leaving my side, always providing, always lifting, always providing strength and beauty and light and passion and love. I have so many fears and imperfections but He can cover them all. He has provided for me in every way He can. I am so blessed to live in this world, blessed beyond what I deserve. And He loves me- the greatest blessing of all. That is what I love.

This is my passion and my love: to share what I see with all.

Edit: After writing this post, I read this post on another blog. I feel like it expresses a sentiment that I wholeheartedly support, and that ties into this post.