Beauty as True North: Finding joy, peace, and meaning in chaotic times

“Beauty is the experience that gives us a sense of joy and a sense of peace simultaneously. Other happenings give us joy and afterwards a peace, but in beauty these are the same experience. Beauty is serene and at the same time exhilarating; it increases one’s sense of being alive…Beauty is the mystery which enchants us. Like all higher experiences of being human, beauty is dynamic; its sense of repose, paradoxically, is never dead, and if it seems to be dead, it is no longer beauty.”
—Rollo May, My Quest for Beauty

I deeply resonate with Rollo May’s reflections on beauty. To me, beauty feels like the direction of True North. In the midst of chaos and change, it seems that what we’re searching for as a culture can be found by turning our gaze toward beauty.

You feel it most profoundly in nature: the cares of the world dissolve, and a quiet peace washes over you. But beauty isn’t confined to the natural world. It can be found in meaningful connections with people, in the arts, and in countless other moments of transcendence that remind us what it means to be alive.

In my view, beauty is not only a compass but the destination itself. It is the mystery that enchants, the dynamic force that awakens, and the serene energy that brings us back to ourselves. Beauty is, and always has been, the direction of True North.