A Pause For Beauty
One ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture,
and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
- Goethe
. . .
A meditation on beauty.
I am in love with this world. I have nestled lovingly in it. I have climbed its mountains, roamed its forests, sailed its waters, crossed its deserts, felt the sting of its frosts, the oppression of its heats, the drench of its rains, the fury of its winds, and always have beauty and joy waited upon my goings and comings.
- John Burroughs
Birches II Giclee Print
Birches II Notecards
Birches II Poster With Beauty Quote
Birches II Poster Without Words
Beauty is easy to avoid.
It doesn’t complain.
It offers itself to us without price,
Other than focus
It offers itself to us in silence
Without cost, other than our attention,
Paying attention is a practice
Like Buddhism or yoga.
I’ve walked through fields of wildflowers
Through forests of huge hemlock trees
Barely noticing, absorbed by some problem or other
Some painting not going well
Some piece of writing not coming together.
I moved to the woods to live with beauty.
Now, I’m surrounded by it all day long
In a multitude of forms: sounds, smells, sights
And sometimes BANG! It hits me —
I’ve come to accept beauty as normal
And take it for granted.
When I open my heart to beauty
Submerge myself in it
Turn my thought processes over to beauty
I get immediate perspective
On all the other things going on in my life
Some of which are truly important,
Most of which are trivial, meaningless, pointless.
In that way, when I live right
Beauty is my ally, my friend, my guide.
. . .
Journaling question:
What does your current relationship to beauty tell you about how you are living, where you are in your life?
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