Finding Beauty in a Harsh World

Finding Beauty in a Harsh World

A thoughtful reflection on kindness, beauty, and hope, and how small moments of goodness quietly shape the way we see life

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Teaching without warning, that’s the world’s specialty, in a way. Nobody is given a guide on how to handle disappointment. Nobody is fully prepared for silent betrayals, unreciprocated kind gestures, and times when one cannot find even a trace of goodness anywhere. A great deal of life is happening beneath a continuous racket of urgency and self-centeredness. Different voices are jostling each other to be heard. People are walking past one another, each burdened with their own problems, and hence they hardly spare a glance at others.

So, from a distance, it looks like harshness is the only language of the world.

However, rarely does reality reveal itself through distance.

Upon taking a closer look, one will notice yet another story unfolding.

The first hint might be given by the lady who’s willing to wait a little longer to hold a door open for a complete stranger. The shopkeeper who, after many months, remembers the face and the name of their customer is another example. And of course, the silent nod between two helpless strangers on a tough day also reflects that story. And these stories are so normal that most of the time they go unnoticed, unreported, and unrecorded. Yet they are there…

Goodness, in fact, is so wonderfully silent that it can do without recognition. It goes about its business unheralded, yet appreciated when it appears. In a world where being seen is the way one is rewarded, many of the greatest deeds are almost totally ignored.

Maybe that is what makes them so important.

Like goodness, beauty chooses to stay hidden in places that rushed eyes miss. It can be found in the golden rays of the sun that shine on old houses just before it gets dark. It is in the rustle of the leaves in the wind… And the greatest delight of all is when we can truly understand and not just hear the other person. None of these things really ask for the spotlight. They simply are, still and content, as if not caring whether they are noticed or not.

The problem is not that beauty is no longer available. The problem is that despair is sometimes so loud that it drowns beauty out.

Cruelty makes a big noise to announce itself. Anger spreads faster than a virus. Disappointment leaves scars in memory that are hard to erase… But gentleness has a totally different way of moving. It is quiet, slipping through the very fabric of everyday life, and only desires to be noticed.

Maybe strength shouldn’t be thought of as the capacity to turn one’s back on the darkness. To do so would be to disregard its truth. Suffering, too, is the truth. Loss is part of the human condition. Yet human strength might be something else. It is the unwillingness to allow these truths to be the only ones told.

Continuing to seek what is soft and fearless in an indifferent world requires courage. Recognizing that even the smallest of gestures can be kind is a sign of great wisdom. And choosing to see the light amid the shadows, time after time, is what makes us human…

It is not like the world is totally unwilling to unveil its beauty. Sometimes beauty has to be uncovered. It also needs to be protected. Most of the time, beauty is created even through the ordinary act of noticing.

And maybe that silent promise to keep on spotting the goodness that is there is among the most significant forms of hope that people know.