According to Merrium-Webster beauty is the quality or aggregate in a person or thing that gives pleasure to the senses or pleasurably exalts the mind or spirit.

I think that beauty is all around us but we only see it when we open our senses to it. Beauty to me is my 2 girls playing together on the floor. My Himalayan cat sleeping on the end table closest to the glass door with the sun shining on her fur. At times beauty is waking to find that my husband has cleaned the kitchen for me.

To some beauty is vibrant colors arranged on a canvas to create a picture. A bright sky on an autum day or swans swimming peacefully on a crystal lake. A new bride as she prepares to meet her groom at the alter. I agree these things are all beautiful but to me I might arrange the colors on the canvas a bit differently. I may wish to experience the autum day from a mountain top and those swans may be just ducks. The brides dress may be different.

It is all in how we percieve these things and how our senses react. The scent of lavendar may be pleasurable to me but you may prefer roses. I remember a report on the Discovery Channel that said beauty percieved by people of other people all has to do with facial geometry. It makes sense when you truely ponder that fact. Take any beautiful man or woman (yes, men can be beautiful too!!), then look closesly at their face. Their cheek bones are symetric. Their eyes set an equal distance from the nose. The nose slender and set in the center of the face with symetric nostrils. A mouth that is centered under the nose and full lips and straight teeth that are white. A long slender neck.

Now the rest of the body that compliments the face is somewhat of a debate now a days. To some a sleek, slender, toned body is desirable. To others a few more curves and a little more "meat" on the bones is beautiful. We all agree that a pregnant woman with that wonderfully full belly and pregnant glow about her skin is beautiful.

Indeed beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There is no "one size fits all" beauty. We may find that we agree on certain things that we deem beautiful but what is beautiful to a mother (sticky finger prints on the window after the kids watch the snow fall) may not be beautiful to a woman who cannot concieve. A french bulldog may not come across as a beautiful specimen of dog breeding to a person who likes labs. Beauty is an expression and I think that we should be proud of the beauty we present to the world. I for one don't always feel beautiful however my husband insists that I am. Perhaps it's motherhood that is beautiful, perhaps my appearance hasn't changed as much as I think that it has. I say find what you think is beautiful and enjoy it and share it with others. You never know when what you view as beauty is shared with another person.