What is Beauty?
Last week I sat down with Hannah from Hands in the Soil podcast and was asked what one of the biggest lessons I've learned from managing the Tiny Farm was.
I thought for a moment before responding:
“Bringing beauty to the world will never fail you.”
Beauty is a word we use a lot at the farm. In fact, we even have a mural entirely dedicated to it.
But the way we define “beauty” is different from how our culture often thinks of it.
To us, beauty is more of a feeling than it is something visual. Yes, visually appealing things can be beautiful, but aesthetics alone are insufficient in capturing the kind of beauty we hold sacred at the farm.
In fact, too much focus on aesthetics can often rob something of true beauty, as it distracts from where beauty fundamentally originates: from the heart.
Something that looks good is pretty.
Something that feels good is beautiful.
We don’t describe someone as having a “pretty heart.”
They have a beautiful heart.
Given this understanding of beauty, how then is it created?
I believe beauty is born from the giving of oneself completely to something in the spirit of service.
The giving of oneself implies an aspect of sacrifice. It’s a transfer of your own energy into the birth and development of something other than yourself.
The giving of oneself “completely…in the spirit of service” entails an offering of one’s energy without the expectation of return. It’s non-transactional. A gift of sorts. Yes, a return may come, but it’s not required in order to justify your efforts.
This is what makes it sacred.
It’s no coincidence that sacred and sacrifice share the same root word sacrare (to make holy).
This is what brings products and services to life.
It’s certainly what we strive for at the Tiny Farm.
Every bed we plant, every box we pack, every gathering we host we try to approach it as an offering. Not just something to be consumed, but something to be felt.
Something beautiful.
And maybe that’s why it resonates.
But even if it didn’t—if there were no business, no customers, no growth—I wouldn’t change a thing.
Because in giving myself to this place and making it beautiful, I’ve found an incredible sense of meaning.
And there is still so much more beauty left for us to create.