The Beauty We Forgot

 
Silence mistaken for ignorance instead of wisdom.
Patience mistaken for weakness instead of strength.
Forgiveness mistaken for cowardice instead of courage.
 
How strange that we so often fail to recognize beauty when it stands before us.
 
We celebrate the length of her hair and the curve of her hips.
We admire the clever tongue, the quick wit, the practiced smile.
We call passion love and hunger devotion.
 
But these things, though lovely for a moment, are not what make a soul desirable.
 
We have measured our worth by waistlines and wrinkles.
By followers and attention.
By whether someone chose us, wanted us, desired us, applauded us, or stayed.
 
What strange pennies we have sold ourselves for.
 
A little attention.
A little approval.
A little affection.
A fleeting moment of feeling wanted.
 
We traded peace for comparison.
Contentment for ambition.
Identity for acceptance.
Conviction for applause.
 
Never considering we lose ourselves to illusion.
 
Just one compromise.
Just one insecurity.
Just one lie swallowed whole.
 
Until one day we look around and realize we have spent treasures that heaven placed within us on things that could never satisfy.
 
Not because we are evil.
Because we are thirsty.
Because we are lonely.
Because we are afraid.
Because someone convinced us that what we already possessed was not enough.
 
The graven images of our age do not sit upon altars carved from stone.
They glow from screens.
They whisper from advertisements.
They stare back at us from mirrors.
 
They promise significance while stealing identity.
They promise freedom while demanding sacrifice.
And still we bow.
Not with bent knees perhaps, but with bent hearts.
 
We offer them our peace, our contentment, our self-worth, our time, our youth, and sometimes even our souls.
All the while believing the lie that we are not enough.
Not beautiful enough.
Not young enough.
Not successful enough.
Not desirable enough.
Not loved enough.
 
We drank from broken cisterns because we were thirsty.
We bowed before graven images because we were searching for worth.
We chased reflections because we had forgotten our own faces.
 
But perhaps the greatest deception of all is that we have confused being desired with being valuable.
 
For a body may be desired and still be discarded.
A face may be admired and still be forgotten.
A charming tongue may gather a crowd and yet remain desperately lonely.
 
The treasures that make a person truly beautiful have never changed.
 
Wisdom.
Mercy.
Integrity.
Humility.
Faithfulness.
 
The quiet strength to remain soft in a world that rewards hardness.
The courage to forgive when bitterness feels justified.
The grace to love without demanding worship in return.
 
These are the things that time cannot wrinkle.
These are the things that suffering cannot steal.
These are the things that neither age nor death can diminish.
 

Shake yourself, wake up!

Wash your soul and return to power.

Come back! Come back!

That power is not arrogance.
It is the return of clarity.
The return of identity.
The return of dignity.
The return of wisdom.
The return of virtue.

What strange pennies we have sold ourselves for..