Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali

I love the first part of this reading. I love what it says about beauty and the perception of it. There are many different perceptions of beauty and mine may be different from yours. but i love the idea of loving something the way it is and it's beauty, not because of how we benefit from it. the example they used was "green plants and running water are loved for themselves, not for the sake of drinking the water or eating the plants." it's an amazing way to look at everything around us. as i sit here and write about this, i just think about outside my house, all the trees that surround it and the plants and flowers and animals living there. especially during the fall season, its just beautiful. to think about a tree, how unique it is. it's a whole different living form. it's so intricate and unique. how it feeds and how it grows and how the leaves fall and grow back and how it serves as a home for other animals. it's so complex yet so simple and so beautiful at the same time. i feel like its just proof that there is a higher being out there. There is a God. i refuse to believe that such a beautiful thing was caused by accident or a big bang.