The Art of Living a Beautiful Life

Some people think it takes a lot of money to have a "beautiful life." I admit that even I fantasize about becoming a billionaire or even marrying one (giggle, giggle). But will that necessarily result in a life more beautiful? I don't know. I don't think so.

I think that right now, my life is very beautiful. And I could not be much poorer than I am right now without needing intervention from the authorities. Yet, I think I live a life that is very, very beautiful in my view. How come? Well, it is attitude more than anything. It is a decision I make each day. To make the most of each day. To get the most good out of it.

 Any day I don't decide that it will be a beautiful day, it never is because there are so many moving elements that can just set you back, make you unhappy. So it is constant work. And it is constant making of choices. It definitely is not money, although, sometimes just having ten euros can make a difference because with that, you can bring home maybe a bouquet of flowers, or a new little white tea cup, or a tin can of hot chocolate mix, or a bunch of grapes, or a new coffee table book that you pick up for three euros, or something simple like that. And that can transform a day into something so beautiful and exquisite.

A beautiful life is not a right. Rather, it is hard work that never stops needing to be redone. It is hard work that first begins with making hard choices. Who are you going to be? What are you going to do? How are you going to feel? When will your beautiful life begin?

Who are you going to be is not as easy as it seems. There are so many different aspects to each of us. We are daughter, sister, friend, mother, father, brother, lover, employee, commuter, neighbor, so many things on any given day and each of those things can have an impact on our state of mind at any given moment. And then you have the critics, the third party observers and others who don't know you from Adam but think they have a right to brand you and tell you who you are. Invariably, they are not going to brand you as your best self. They are going to make sure that you are somewhere way below them. So you listen to them at your own peril and you listen to them and before you know it your life is not so beautiful.

So that is just one aspect.  Deciding for yourself who you are going to be. There are all those others, the whats, hows, whens and so forth. All of these can have such a huge impact on the quality of your life, which is really nothing more than an accumulation of days. So it is the quality of each day that summarize and comprise your life. What do you make of each of these days? That is the question.


A lot of the time, I think our lives are less than beautiful to us because we let ourselves be bothered by what everybody else says or does. Some of these people, we don't even know them from Adam and they don't know us. But their opinons can have such a huge impact on how we feel about ourselves. They can just "fuck up" our day with just a sniff of their haughty, mean, little nostrils. As they intended because we give them so much power, so much relevance.  But if we decide that hey, I don't care. I don't care about anybody's opinion of me. I don't care what this total stranger thinks of me. I am not going to let myself feel badly about someone else's words and actions and omissions or whatever. I am not going to let people put me in a box and tell me how to do me.

I decide how to be me. Nobody tells me how to be me.

I am going to CHOOSE to be happy and I am going to choose a beautiful life for myself.

But then the question is, what is a beautiful life? How much does it cost? I think, personally, that it depends on your own definition. For me, a beautiful life does not cost very much. A beautiful life is a life of peacefulness and tranquility. It is a nice cup of tea in a beautiful tea cup. It is a long walk in the rain. It's some jazz music when I want it and silence when I don't. It is freedom to come and go as I please. It is an orderly existence and environment. It is good health (which is my job to maintain), it is healthy relationships of all genres, it's cleanliness, and it is the ability and desire to smile more often than I frown. This is a beautiful life to me. It is one that has to be created each day by me as no one else will hand it to me on a silver platter. Is this "art"? I don't know. I think maybe it is. Because you create art. Just like you create a beautiful life for yourself.

For me, the art of living a  beautiful life is very simple. Be who you are. Define yourself. Do what you want (and do it your way like Frank Sinatra said) and decide not to let it matter. Don't ask permission whether expressly or implicitly. No one is going to give you permission to have a beautiful life. Give yourself permission.

When should your beautiful life begin? Right now, I think. Darling, what are you waiting for?!