40 Days of Beauty

Today is Ash Wednesday and thus the beginning of the forty days of Lent.  This is the season in the church year to anticipate and prepare for Easter.  There are, of course, many ways to prepare for Easter.  Many Christians give up something for Lent like chocolate, sweets, meat (or just meat on Fridays), TV, etc.  In past years I have given things up for Lent, but I've found that it is more meaningful for me to do something more rather than giving something up.  A few years ago I read through the Gospels a little each day of Lent.  Last year, I read a devotion and journaled about it daily.

This year during Lent, I'm going to commit to daily intentional acts to bring about more beauty in the world.  I'm defining 'beauty' in a very broad sense here.  It will include the physical beauty of my community, my house, my places of work, my self, and my friends and family.  Beauty will also include creating or sharing written, visual, or audio arts.  The physical beauty (what we see on the surface) is important, but it is creating more inner beauty within the people I come into contact with that I'd like to really focus on during Lent.  I'm sure I will learn much more about what inner beauty is, but I see it as the joy, compassion, dignity, peace, hope, faith, and love that exist within a person.  In reality I won't really be creating inner beauty (God already did that)...I'll just be helping myself and others realize that that beauty exists within each of us and then nurture and grow that inner beauty.

I hope that committing these acts of beauty will help me better see the beauty that God created in the world.  I also hope that these acts of beauty will help prepare me in body and spirit to remember and celebrate the most extravagant act of beauty the world has ever experienced: Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection.

I won't post daily about my acts of beauty, but my goal is to leave a record here on my blog of at least 40 intentional acts of bringing about more beauty.  If you have any suggestions for an act of beauty, please share- I'm more than open to your suggestions, especially if it's something that I might do to create more beauty in your life.