beau·ti·ful (byÁÆtà fÃl), adj.

1. having beauty; having qualities that give great pleasure or satisfaction to see, hear, think about, etc.; delighting the senses or mind: a beautiful dress; a beautiful speech.
2. excellent of its kind: a beautiful putt on the seventh hole; The chef served us a beautiful roast of beef.
3. wonderful; very pleasing or satisfying.
n.
4. the concept of beauty (usually prec. by the).
5. (used with a pl. v.) beautiful things or people collectively (usually prec. by the): the good and the beautiful.
6. the ideal of beauty (usually prec. by the): to strive to attain the beautiful.
interj.
7. wonderful; fantastic: You got two front-row seats? Beautiful!
8. extraordinary; incredible: used ironically: Your car broke down in the middle of the freeway? Beautiful!

Syn.1. comely, seemly, attractive, fair, beauteous. BEAUTIFUL, HANDSOME, LOVELY, PRETTY refer to a pleasing appearance. A person or thing that is BEAUTIFUL has perfection of form, color, etc., or noble and spiritual qualities: a beautiful landscape, a beautiful woman. HANDSOME often implies stateliness or pleasing proportion and symmetry: a handsome man. That which is LOVELY is beautiful but in a warm and endearing way: a lovely smile. PRETTY implies a moderate but noticeable beauty, esp. in that which is small or of minor importance: a pretty child.

I have found myself using the word 'beautiful' a lot lately. This came as something of a slap in the face, as I had a teacher who challenged us not to use the words 'beautiful', 'nice', and 'good', but to be more creative with our adjectives. She was a good teacher. There I go again... 'good'.

I had great difficulty choosing a photo for this post. 'Beautiful', to me, encompasses so many different things... frost on the grass, a gnarled tree, a wrinkled smile, hands that have seen many years and hard work, kittens, spiders, a child's laugh, a wild garden, forests, art in various forms, sunsets, fields, spectacular scenery... I could go on. I chose this photo because of the children, but more so because of the one little girl. "Take a photo of me. I'm beautiful," she says.

I think I will continue to use 'beautiful', if no one minds. I disagree with Webster's Random House Dicionary when it says, "A person or thing that is BEAUTIFUL has perfection of form, color, etc.", though they redeem themselves somewhat with, "or noble and spiritual qualities." To me, 'beautiful' is so much more. It is the sight that makes me catch my breath, the sound that makes my heart swell, the feeling that I want to drown in, the moment that I want to capture in a glass jar and set on my table to gaze at every day.