Virtue of the Week: Beauty

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Virtue of the Week focuses on building peaceful and caring communities through understanding and fostering the practice of virtues. The Source supports the Virtues Project and will publish one virtue developed by the project each week.

Beauty is a sense of wonder and reverence for the harmony, color, and loveliness of the world. Beauty opens us to the deep patterns of life that inform and delight us. It allows us to feel our connectedness with all creation. It calls us to look beyond superficial appearance to appreciate the gifts in each person.

Our creativity brings forth beauty in music, art, dance and language. We practice beauty by creating a space of grace and order around us. We can reflect beauty in the way we dress, move and speak.

Living beautifully is a unique expression of our divine nature.

Quote:
“The human soul needs actual beauty more than bread.”
D H. Lawrence

Practicing Beauty
I spend time in the beauty of nature.
I am inspired by the mysteries of life.
I look for the good within everyone.
I express my own creativity.
I create a space of beauty and order around me.
I speak and act graciously.

I am thankful for the gift of Beauty. It nourishes my soul.

Questions for discussion
– When centering conversations on social justice, how do we remain connected?
– How are our unique gifts celebrated in our community?
– What do grace and order look like in our community?
– How is creativity expressed here? What voices do we lift up? Do we quiet any voices?

The Virtues Project is provided by the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands in partnership with Virtues Matter.

Virtues Matter was started by a wife-husband team of social entrepreneurs seeking to positively uplift as many lives as possible. We aim to inspire and empower, to build capacity, strengthen relationships, and help everyone lead lives of passion and purpose.

Virtues Matter believes in a world where people are committed to kindness and respect, strive to be their best, and live with hope, courage, and in unity. We built the Virtues Cards mobile app, an interactive personal and team development tool, to help people identify and develop key virtues skills. We also offer dynamic workshops, online training, and customized programs to help people cultivate these positive qualities of character. To learn more, visit virtuesmatter.com.