Seeing Our Own Beauty

                 I was sitting outside the other day. A beautiful butterfly landed nearby. The rich colors in its wings reminded me of jewels. Did you know that butterflies cannot see their own wings? These small creatures cannot see the part of them that is filled with beauty. How sad is that? We can watch them flutter by us and breathe in their beauty, but they have no idea how their colors brighten the world around them.

                  Thinking about the beauty in butterfly wings started me thinking about what we do not see when we live with depression. We are like butterflies. Depression darkness our world. It shades how we perceive ourselves. As a result, we do not see the beauty in ourselves. I am not talking about our appearance. Although, each of us has beauty in our own appearance even if the mirror tells us otherwise. I am referring to the beauty in who we are as individuals. 

                  Depression prevents us from seeing positives in all areas of life. This is evident in how we look down upon ourselves. We see what depression wants us to see. We do not see the beauty, the positives in our lives. For example, I often see myself as unworthy of love. Depression has kept me alone for so long that I do not see myself as someone who can be loved by another person. I am blinded to that aspect of myself. 

                  Just like the butterfly misses out on the beauty of its colorful wings, when we cannot see our true selves, we miss out on what others see. We miss out on seeing our true selves.  This is one of the difficult aspects of depression. It impacts our ability to see the goodness in ourselves. We only see the darkness; the faults depression wants us to see. 

                  The butterfly knows nothing of its beauty, but I think we can all agree that butterflies possess beauty. Shouldn’t the same be true of ourselves? Even though we cannot perceive it, we possess beauty. I would like to view myself as possessing inner beauty. Depression gets in the way. I have a lot of work to do to be able to perceive that beauty. I do, however, believe we all possess it. 

                  Even though we must each find our own beauty, we need reminders that we possess it. Perhaps the butterfly can be a reminder. When you see a butterfly pause for a moment to take in a deep breath and recognize beauty. Allow the butterfly’s beautiful wings to be a reminder that there is beauty within each of us.