There seems to be a quiet fading in the way people move through the world today, a soft slackening of the desire to engage with the world’s beauty. Like flowers left untended, there is a wilting happening. People no longer feel the pull to step out, to express their uniqueness, to create something beautiful out of the raw material of life. The drive to make dreams real, to push against the boundaries of the impossible, feels dimmed.
As a makeup artist, I often see this reflected in the way people approach their own beauty rituals. Makeup—once a symbol of self-expression and an intimate act of care—now sometimes feels like an afterthought, just like so many other aspects of life. But if we stop caring about beauty, stop tending to the small things, what happens to the world around us? Everything in our environment mirrors who we are inside. If we desensitize ourselves to beauty, to the act of caring, aren’t we telling ourselves not to feel?
Feelings, like colors on a palette, are what make life vivid. Without them, life is muted. How do we begin to care again? How do we make room for beauty to bloom in our lives once more?
Is it possible that in neglecting beauty, we are also neglecting a part of our humanity? How can we reconnect with the world through the simple act of caring for the small, beautiful things?