Once upon a time,
Humans thought they could capture beauty and become its owners.
They shot down birds who no longer exist,
Claimed their land as their own,
Pinned butterflies to the wall and their flags to the starry sky.
Then they boxed their very definition of beauty,
Setting standards for themselves they could never meet.
They didn't know beauty cannot be owned,
For the essence of beauty is freedom,
So instead of capturing beauty,
They trapped their own kind.
It took them many years to learn to let go,
But when they finally did,
They saw the truth.
Truth presented itself at a time when everything seemed lost,
And all the things they thought mattered,
Didn't matter.
They finally learned beauty starts with witnessing and stops with capturing,
And it can only be experienced when we look without attachment.
Because the moment we try and conquer that which we love,
It vanishes,
Like butterfly wings turned into dust.
We do not own this land,
We do not own the starry sky,
The animals that roam the earth,
The bodies of our own kind,
Nor the hearts we claim to love.
And for the rest of their lives,
Humans cherished the beauty of this world,
So fully diverse and free,
And in doing so,
They freed themselves.
