Most of us want to be sexy. Many of us want to be beautiful. It’s easy to think of these terms as synonyms, but they’re not.
Sexy is ephemeral. Sexy can be affected. Sexy is vacant.
Sexy is outward visual attractiveness that translates to photographs and advertisements. It draws us in, but it also spits us out. It grabs our lust-filled attention, but once our carnal desires are sated, sexy doesn’t keep us around.
Sexy can be washed down the drain or left on the floor or deleted. Have you ever been attracted to someone until they speak, act, and engage with the world? You can be sexy and be an ugly human being.
We are born beautiful.
Beauty is deeply rooted and radiates from the soul outward. Beauty is magnetic — we want to get closer to it. We want to stay close.
Beautiful eyes embody the the universe.
Beautiful smiles birth relationships.
Beautiful hands care for others.
One’s beauty grows from an understanding of—and confidence in—who you are, and a belief that you’re valuable. Beauty blooms with age, intention. Embodying true beauty is the sexiest quality we can possess.
By stripping away the excess, minimalism allows the sun to energize latent beauty.
Simple clothes don’t cover up or distract, they showcase our humanity.
Restraint in our built environment allows us to appreciate the stark appeal of a white wall, the unique patterns in concrete, the peace of an open space, the infinity of a window with a view.
Slack in our schedules grants us more time to spend outdoors in the natural world, the place from which all beauty arises.
It can be difficult to embrace beauty when society markets sexiness as the ultimate objective. Why would we want to work to see beauty when we can just buy sexy? After all, sexiness is more attractive, isn’t it?
The way I see it, we can make the deliberate, sometimes difficult, choice to be beautiful, or we can feed our ego and pay for sexy.