Beauty
“Looking
at fine paintings, we can see how the ordinary and everyday can be made
beautiful: maybe we can take the next step and see the beauty in things we take
for granted or even consider ugly.
David
Ross
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I live inside my head and fail to notice what’s around me. I especially skip the people and places that are familiar to me—for example, I fail to notice the streets I drive on every day. My head is always running ahead of my present moment. I miss too much—sometimes I arrive wherever I’m going and wonder who drove the car! It’s almost as though I wasn’t even there. I wonder if you do this, too.
Right now, in Alabama, the rain is
coming down steadily. Everything outside is saturated and soppy, but the
jonquils are furiously blooming, and the tulip trees have already spread their
purple blossoms wide open. A downy woodpecker eats regularly at the suet
feeder, with his black and white stripes and brilliant red crown, and I don’t
want to miss any of that.
It’s easy when our lives become routine, as mine is, to overlook the beauty that surrounds us. We especially seem predisposed to ignore the everyday wonders when the weather is gray and wet and chilly. It is as though the grayness not only dampens the outer world, but our inner world as well. We put on our winter blinders that dim everything.
Today, when I drive to the gym, instead of cussing and fussing the whole way, I will notice what is beautiful around me. The world has been washed clean. The sky is almost white, and the bare trees against it look like an Ansel Adams photograph.
I encourage you to do the same. Open
your eyes to what is beautiful in your environment, wherever you may be. Don’t
take anything for granted. Beauty refreshes the spirit, and in mid-winter we need
that more than anything.
In the spirit,
Jane
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