Look at how beautiful the sky is if you stop taking it for granted. You too. Your face. Every inch of your body while we’re at it.
It’s all exquisite. Breathtaking.
But it’s also easy to look past if you forget to appreciate it. If you pull in, wounded and sad, and block out everything else. Oh, sure, you technically see all of this beauty around you, but you can’t recognize it. Not for what it is.
It’s so easy to become too focused on yourself — to the point where you shut out the rest of the world. Where you can’t see anything but your own ambitions and insecurities. Where you might as well exist in some kind of void.
Some people end up closed down because of fear. Exhaustion. A sense that the world has beaten them down. In this case, self-absorption is a defensive posture, a form of self-protection. If you don’t let anything or anyone in, then it can’t hurt you. But the isolation can.
Other people end up self-absorbed when striving for self-love. They forget that love isn’t about obsession but about authentic connection. They confuse self-love with isolation. A self-love needs the world to connect to it, in order to thrive. You can’t love yourself by drawing in. You don’t connect you to you. Instead, you nurture yourself as you reach outside of yourself — to whatever thrills you, whatever matters, whatever you find beautiful and meaningful. And you let it touch you. You let it see you. And you truly see it back.
That’s why the sky looks so beautiful when you stop taking it for granted. Why your lovers practically gleam when you properly appreciate how precious it really is to connect meaningfully with another person. Why your face in the mirror is more exquisite than you give it credit for.