There was once a young man who lived his life simply without following the crowd by keeping up with the latest clothing styles, electronic gadgetry, and other external expressions until one day when things began to change.  It was a beautiful spring day.  The young man was struck by the beauty of the young woman in class.  There was just something about her.  She wasn’t flashy nor was she plain.  He couldn’t figure out what made her so beautiful.

She sat near him in three of his classes in school.  Now and then he sensed someone was watching him, so he would look up or around just in time to notice her turning her head as if she had just been looking in her direction.  Convinced that she was, he decided to change his outward appearance, so he could approach her without looking so plain and dull.

He bought clothes that were in style, got himself a cell phone with all the apps and accessories, and even changed his hair style.  He then began looking at her.  Each time he looked, she would look away.  Occasionally, he would look up and around like before only to find her studying, or talking with someone else.  Soon, he got tired of the awesome clothes and stopped using his cell phone anymore and returned to his old ways, his old boring, dull, unappealing ways.  She still looked beautiful though.

Class was ending one day.  As he looked up and around he saw her, looking right at him, and smiling.  She was actually smiling at him.  He couldn’t stand it, “What’s up?  What’s so funny?  What are you looking at?”  He said in a gruff and rude sort of way.  She kept smiling and said, “I’m glad you changed.”  “Changed?  I just went back to being the old me.  You didn’t notice me when I looked cool before.  So, what’s up now?”  “I like the way you are, not the way you aren’t.  I can see the you inside because I see with my heart not just my eyes.  I like the you within.”  The young man suddenly “saw” with his own heart and understood what made her so beautiful… It was her heart.

Society often focuses on the external.  Society teaches the listener and viewer how important it is wear the right clothes, to get rid of gray hair by dying it, and change the way you look.  Take on the appearance of someone we are not by covering and camouflaging the real person within.  Then, society teaches to buy beyond our needs so we can look and act successfully.  Avoid what’s inside.  People don’t look at what’s inside because only what you see matters.  Many choose to change the outside, while avoiding what is within believing it unnecessary.  It’s unseen, unfamiliar, unattractive, unnoticed, therefore, unnecessary

Maybe we could learn something from the young woman.  “I like the way you are, not the way you aren’t.  I can see the you inside because I see with my heart not just my eyes.  I like the you within”

The French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote  “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”  Maybe we should try looking with our heart instead of just our eyes.  We can see true beauty, true wisdom, those things that are right and just, life focused on truth instead of just appearance by seeing with our heart.