Before The Weekend #10 — The Beauty of Life — 28 May 2021

This week, in the 10th Before The Weekend, I wanted to do something special. A deep-dive into only one topic: the beauty of Life.

Since The Book of Noble Purpose came out, I have been lucky to be invited for an increasing number of interviews to talk about it. Many journalists remarked that I have dedicated my first book to the beauty of Life. Not to a person, but to something so special, unique, never seen, … That choice always triggers them, and they want to understand my motivations.

Hence I thought that it would be a good idea to share in my weekly talk why I choose that dedication to the beauty of Life and use it as a theme to let you reflect on something so precious and yet so often ignored.

What is Life for us?

Is it our work? Is it the way we look at things? Is it how we possess things? How we interact with others?

When I think about Life, a couple of things come to mind:

• I grew up in the countryside, surrounded by nature, by animals, by flowers, by the visible presence of the change of the seasons, …
• I have survived a violent kidnapping in 1994, where I got severely injured and where I got confronted with a near-death experience.
• The work I do, connecting people with their Noble Purpose, is very uplifting, positive, and constructive.
• The people I meet and from whom I learn.

These are things we consider normal, or even insignificant, until the moment that Life is going to stop.

Complaining vs awareness

Often, I hear people complain about their Life. They don’t like their job, or their relationships, or a friendship, or something that is not working out the way they wanted it to work out. But they confuse what they do in their life, meaning the concrete components of how they live their life, with Life as such.

For example, if I have to write an opinion piece, I can like or dislike that, but that is only a small material component of my Life, requiring specific energy and effort. But my Life is about more than that. It’s about looking at the birds, the blossoming of the trees or the clouds passing by. It’s being conscious of the smell of coffee, freshly baked bread or freshly cut grass. It’s about being connected with a special friend, being aware of the beauty of the weather, observing nature … It’s about being mindful about the things that are there anyway.

Life is something sacred that requires a very special awareness and relation with it. Too often, it’s only when Life is about to end, that we become aware.

And yet, it requires zero effort to become conscious of these things. We don’t need to do anything specific to have them. We only must be willing to open our senses, our hearts, our consciousness. This is not philosophy, it’s being connected instantly with Life.

What about you?

So, how often do you think about the quality of your Life? How often do you stop your daily or weekend routine, to connect with life? How often do you stop to observe the grass, the birds, a tree, the garden, the view from your place. When you’re driving, what is it that you observe? Buildings? Nature? Other people in their cars? When you are at your office, are you aware of all the amazing things surrounding you? What gets your attention?

What do you allow your mind to focus on? If we want to love Life and connect with its beauty, we have to learn to shift our minds to the things that are already there. The things that can help us uplift and connect with the essence of Life. Not the complexity that we’ve created, not the abundance of material things or wealth, but the simple things that make Life.

Commit to connection

This weekend, I invite you to connect with those simple things and see how different this makes you feel. Commit now, as you are reading this, to step out of your routines and be more observant and mindful. Notice the simple and great things around you. I promise, you don’t want to or need to wait until you are face-to-face with death.

I’d like to end with a reflective quote from Kahlil Gibran:

‘Write the bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you in marble.’