Eventually one has to realize that "beauty" doesn't exist in anything inherently but is rather a very personal estimation applied to whatever we wish or withhold from what we do not wish. Although we call it "looking for beauty" in something external, what's actually happening is we are discovering our own internal ability to see in beautiful ways and to define what we personally mean by "beauty". A sunset, after all, is just a sunset - it is the self that sees and makes it beautiful, or finds it ugly or, worse, a commonplace. Regardless of our estimation of the sunset, the sunset itself is unchanged by our vision or lack of it. Some have looked at what many consider to be beautiful paintings and seen only ugliness and have attempted to destroy them. Others look at things that are instinctively ugly or even commonplace to many of us and somehow seen astonishing beauty instead. They have a vision most of us do not.

What do I look for in "beauty"? I look for the answers to who I am and who I am becoming. I am what makes the world beautiful and joyous or something else. I am where the power of those emotions exists. To have beauty, I need only choose to see it, to experience it. To have joy, I need only choose to allow it no matter the context in which I find myself.