Inner beauty can fade, too

We often hear about the wasted energy focusing on exterior beauty, believing the axiom that a person’s heart matters the most but the reality is that all beauty requires attention. In other words, the soul needs tending. As Sarah Manguso reminds us, “Inner beauty can fade, too.”

In my memoir, I wrote about my first real heartbreak:

”I used to believe in this idea that every cell in our body is replaced over the course of seven years. I even thought it’d make a great song because it could articulate moving on, that our grief need not haunt us because our existence represents continuous healing and change. But it turns out that some cells never get replaced. Most notably: cells in the heart. But they can change: they can get stronger, they can work with other, newer cells, and life can go on.”

The reality is that our hearts, both physical and spiritual, can get stronger when they are cared for. When they are challenged with exercise by testing the limits of how much they are able to give. Otherwise, like our bodies and our minds, they weaken. In other words, kindness, intelligence, and strength are not a given. Like any true beauty, they must be shared if they’re to be appreciated.