Finding beauty around you does not mean that everything in your life is going perfectly as planned.
And honestly, what does “perfectly planned” even mean?
Your idea of a perfect day might not be your idea of a perfect tomorrow.
You might be so fixated on getting through one particular door that you don't realize there are ten other available doors waiting for you to open them. Sometimes we are so focused on the way we thought our life was supposed to unfold that we miss the beauty of what's actually happening.
Being a pageant queen has taught me something about this.
When people first hear the words pageant queen, they automatically think about appearance:
The dress.
The makeup.
The hair.
The crown.
The stage.
And yes, I love all those things, but the longer I live, the more I realize that beauty is so much bigger than what you see on stage or in a photograph.
Beauty is a way of living. It’s the company you choose to keep. It's the juicy conversations that suddenly shift your perspective.
It’s taking something ordinary and designing an experience out of it. Think of a road trip. Technically, all you are doing is riding in one car going from one destination to another, but when you decide to stop somewhere along the way to take pictures, grab something to eat, and ask each other questions like, what's something you’ve always wanted to do or what dreams haven't you told anyone about; you’ve turned your road trip into a luxury experience. You designed a memory. We forget that we have the internal power to do this when we get caught up in our mundane daily tasks.
Beauty is walking down the street and not just noticing the flowers, but touching them, smelling them, putting one in your hair. It’s putting on that perfume because you want to feel good, not just smell good. It’s getting dressed to go nowhere, playing music while you cook, and making your hair beautiful even while you're in the process of building the life you want to live. Sometimes it's about slowing down to savor what you currently have instead of constantly craving more. We get hyperfocused on one version of the plan that we can’t see the possibilities sitting right beside us.
Maybe the timeline changed. Maybe the thing you wanted didn't happen the way you imagined. That doesn't automatically mean something went wrong, or that you weren't capable of achieving this plan. Maybe you are being introduced to a new version of your life you didn't have the imagination to plan for yet. So look around, notice what's here. Don’t dismiss the moment just because it's taking you somewhere different than you planned.
Being a beauty queen has taught me this: a crown is something you can wear, but beauty is a value you can authentically showcase and live by. A beautiful life isn't necessarily a perfectly planned life. It's a life you have learned how to see and had the courage to design with substance.
