It's one of the most enlightening paradoxes I've become aware of:
That often the stories which seem the saddest or most heart-breaking are the most beautiful

The beauty is usually not in the circumstances themselves...but in how we respond to those circumstances with courage, strength, hope, resilience, and above all love...

It changes everything...
To acknowledge that such beauty can be born of the deepest darkness

Darkness that is able to crush despite having no tangible mass or substance
Darkness that consumes us if we forget that we are the light...

Light by its very definition is energy...maybe that explains why it can be so hard to battle darkness...it can be exhausting
Yet, as long as we can perceive the darkness...we can also manifest the light that is our salvation
That is Beautiful...

To come to the realization that we are not condemned to be prisoners in the darkness until some outside entity bestows light upon us
At any moment, we have but to shift our perception inward and we find that which we seek

This is not to say that outside entities cannot help us to find this light...
But merely to reveal that the light which we seek is not withheld from us by any force outside of our control

This also does not mean darkness is ever eliminated, for without light darkness always returns...ever assuring us of its presence.

This means we must consciously and constantly strive to find within us our own light...
This is our journey...a journey in which each of us may arrive at the destination along vastly different paths using strategies as unique as our identities themselves
Although others may aid us on this journey, providing strength and encouragement, they cannot walk our paths for us...

Thus we must develop strategies...
Darkness can be so deep that we lose sight of our sources of light
This is where mindfulness is required
We must practice gratitude...not on occaision, but we must condition ourselves to be grateful even when surrounded by darkness
Even in darkness we can be grateful, and by practicing gratitude we arouse our inner light
Love is born from gratitude...we cannot have one without the other
And love is as pure an energy as the light from the sun itself
As the sun produces light, so too can we generate love through practicing gratitude
And with this love we may begin to realize that the light we seek comes not from without...but from within

And that is Beautiful