Every week I look for glimpses of beauty—in nature, the arts, or the unexpected—and because I’m intentional, I usually find it. So much of enjoying beauty is about paying attention and simply being aware of it around you. It’s a mindset that can be cultivated.
As I’ve said before, part of the joy of beauty is sharing it with others so they can enjoy it too. So, when I launched this blog last year, I started sharing beauty on Facebook and Instagram @glimsen.
On Instagram, I soon found a kindred spirit and fellow beauty lover in Jill Dixon @joyinthesmallthings. Her photos focus on beauty, and her feed is a deep breath of fresh air. I asked if I could feature her here and she agreed. Here’s what Jill has to say about beauty.
LM: Why is beauty important to you?
JD: Just over a year ago, in the middle of a season of transition and change, I said to God, “I feel like I am just hanging on. Where are you?” I was on a walk and I felt like God said, “Jill, I’m right here.” I remember stopping, right there on the sidewalk, and looking around me, and realizing that there was beauty everywhere, if I would stop long enough to look.
As a type-A, list-making ESFJ, I can easily get caught up in what I need to do and forget to look up, to look around me.
That day, I remember thinking, “You’re right. You’re all around me. I’m going to start looking for you everyday.” And I did. At first I had to remind myself to look around, and some days I wouldn’t remember until late in the afternoon, but in time I began to wake up thinking, “I wonder where I will see beauty today?”
LM: What made you decide to share that beauty on Instagram?
JD: For me, so much of social media was negative, and I wanted to be a place where people could “land” and take a deep breath. I think social media can be a place where people find beauty. It may not be the norm, but I can tell that it’s growing--this notion that we can lift each other up, rather than put people down.
One friend, early on, told me, “On a hard day I knew if I just looked at your hashtag #iwentlookingforbeauty, I would find what I needed to keep going.” Another friend recently wrote, “Your posts have gotten me through hard days.”
These types of responses are so encouraging to me. I started this hashtag specifically because I was in a hard season, and to think that others are encouraged by what I post means so much to me.
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If you’d like to check out Jill’s Instagram feed, click here. She also has an etsy shop here.
And if you haven’t already done so, look me up @glimsen on Instagram and Facebook too.
Where have you seen beauty on social media? I’d love to know! Please leave a comment here or on Facebook.
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