Photo of a hummingbird moth at my window box of flowers. I have admired these moths since childhood.

No one is immune to beauty. Regardless of background, burdens or limitations, when we find ourselves in a place of great beauty, clarity, recognition and excitement awaken in us. It is never a neutral experience. Despite all our disaffection with what can sometimes seem a harsh and cynical world, there is an eternal beckoning at the heart of beauty that touches what is still innocent in us… To behold beauty dignifies your life; it heals you and calls you out beyond the smallness of your own self-limitation to experience new horizons. To experience beauty is to have your life enlarged. — John O’Donohue

I have yet to find an author who so clearly understands and articulates the role of beauty in the world as well as John O’Donohue. His book, Beauty, The Invisible Embrace: Rediscovering the True Sources of Compassion, Serenity, and Hope is at the very top of my “greatest books of all time” list.

What I’ve gleaned from O’Donohue is just how essential, how integral beauty is to life.