B-e-a-utiful!

A post on RA's blog about "Simple pleasures of life" reminded me of an essay I had to write for my English class comparing and contrasting any two things. Just felt like sharing it with friends, friend's friends and absolute strangers.

Beauty – is it taken for granted?

‘Nanaimo is a beautiful city.’ That is what the tourist brochures claim. And there is no doubt about it either. Ever since I arrived in Nanaimo three weeks back, I have been left awestruck by its beauty. Its breathtaking scenery, its beautiful romantic sunsets, its calm yet mysterious waters; all make it seem like it is indeed paradise on earth. The aura of this city aroused my senses like none other. I was walking about the city, consuming in all its beauty. I desired to blend with my surroundings. Suddenly, I am jerked back into reality by the blaring noise of the bus horn. I look around me and realize that all the people are so busy going about their daily chores – running to school, driving to work, mending the garden – that they do not once stop to watch, touch or feel these precious gifts of nature that God has bestowed upon them. I wondered how people could be so indifferent to it all, so immune to this beauty. Was it because they were born into this paradise, they took this beauty for granted?

I think of Muscat, the city where I have lived the best part of the eighteen years of my life. Had I also been the same, and failed to recognize the beauty around me? Had I fallen prey to human nature too? I realize that I indeed had. Not once had I appreciated what I had been blessed with around me. Bittersweet memories from my past flash across my mind, taking me for a few moments to another time and place. It’s not that I had ever underestimated Muscat’s beauty. It’s just that I had never given it another glance. Now that I was away, I longed for the cool soft sands, the bare rocky mountains, the calm quiet beaches and the rough playful sea. A rustling in the leaves brings me back to this paradise again. Two cute rabbits and some graceful deer are playing about the trees and grass. I am immediately stabbed with a feeling of guilt. Never once had I stopped and gazed at the majestic camels that lived back home.

The two cities are not alike in any sense. Nanaimo is on an island, surrounded by water, covered with tall trees – pine trees, cedar trees, apple trees, acorn trees, trees I have never seen or heard of before. Muscat is in the desert, covered with sand, with the occasional tall date palms looking back at you from the horizon. Nanaimo has lush green grass wherever you look. The only greenery you’ll ever find in Muscat will be in the backyard of a house whose owners have a passion for gardening. In Nanaimo, you can feel the cold wet air brushing your face, but in Muscat, it’s only hot dry winds that will blow through your hair. Nanaimo is blessed with four seasons, ranging from times when the leaves fall off the tree to times when you have the occasional snowfall. In Muscat, it’s considered surprising if it rains for more than one day in a year. One city has what the other does not. Yet both these places are beautiful in their own respect.

As I stand here, looking around at nature’s wonders around me, I slowly find myself wanting to be less awed by it all. How could I let myself be taken away by this beauty, when I had always lived in somewhere equally beautiful? That is when it dawned on me that maybe it is not the case that people take all this beauty for granted. Maybe they have lived in this beauty for so long that it has become a part of them, and they really don’t need to stop to look at the rabbits play, or gaze at the sunset, or stare at the grey clouds that promise rain. I was a stranger to this foreign beauty and hence felt the need to acquaint myself with these gifts of nature. But for the people of Nanaimo, it had become a part of them, a part of their existence. All they ever needed to do was close their eyes and they would see the panoramic beauty unfold in front of their eyes, in the same way that I had experienced. I realized that the beauty of Muscat was a part of me and I never had to look far, but within myself, whenever I found myself missing home.

We are, after all human, and it is impossible not to be moved by beauty around us. Beauty is so powerful that we are not even aware when it becomes a part of us. Everything is beautiful. Everything. If something doesn’t seem beautiful, the first question you must ask yourself is why you think it’s not beautiful. You will soon realize that there is, in fact, no reason at all.