Weekend Reflection
Beauty
"What may be most missing in this highly technological world of ours is beauty. We value efficiency instead. We want functionalism over art. We create trash. We bask in kitsch. But beauty, right proportion in all things, harmony in the universe of our lives, truth in appearances, eludes us. We paint over good wood. We prefer plastic flowers to wild flowers. We reproduce the Pieta in plastics. We forego the natural and the real for the gaudy and the pretentious. We are, as a people, awash in the banal. A loss of commitment to beauty may be the clearest sign we have that we have lost our way to God. Without beauty we miss the glory of the face of God in the here and now.
Beauty is the most provocative promise we have of the Beautiful. It lures us and calls us and leads us on. Souls thirst for beauty and thrive on it and by it nourish hope. It is Beauty that magnetizes the contemplative, and it is the duty of the contemplative to give beauty away so that the rest of the world may, in the midst of squalor, ugliness, and pain, remember that beauty is possible. "*
Today, may Beauty find its way into your heart.
And may you give away some of the Beauty you find to someone in need of their own.
Blessings to you for a glorious weekend ...
Share This Post
Posts
12 comments:
Okay, so I'm sure you know that John O'Donohue wrote a book called Beauty. A meditation really that I am still not finished reading! I can only take it in small bites. Dee-lish.
And Sr. Joan lives about 5 miles from me. :)
And one of the "beautiful" things about beauty is that it is right in front of us, if we don't lose sight of it beneath the busy-ness of our days. The autumn trees, a cat curled up sleeping, a mesmerizing song, smiles. The list goes on. Wishing you a long list, Jan!
what a lovely piece of writing
and so true
i had breakfast with a koala this morning at Anamrae
it was an experience of beauty
:)
Yes, beauty is all around us. In our surroundings, our families, our friends, our pets, our musings....like miracles, it is everywhere. One of my very favorite Sesame Street spots is the one where there is a Vivaldi piece playing and the camera is focused on the center of a flower. As the cameras pans out slowly, and as the music plays, we soon realize that the flower is a daisy, and that the daisy, a weed, is growing in a crack in the cement of pavement in a worn out neighborhood. I find that piece to be so profound. I haven't seen it in years but I'll never ever forget the impact it had on me probably about 38 years ago. Hope your weekend is going well, Jan. xo diantha
a beautiful post :) thank you x
Jan,
This has me thinking about what, at it's core, beauty is. The first thing I did, upon reading this- was to think about what around me, was beauty. And as I looked down, I saw my hands. Not the world's most glorious hands. Yet, when we really look that them - examine them - the lines, the bends, the veins - wow! It's all pretty amazing how these things we call hands are there! So - if I can see beauty within my own hands, when I stop and really look - where else am I missing it? Jan, I'm going to make it my focus for this week, to really seek out the beauty within my world. And I think this is going to be really good for me...
Beauty is essential to my essence. I am surrounded by it on the boat--the sky, the ocean, the hills, the islands...it is what fills my heart and sustains me through everything. On my best days there is such an abundance-- I have tons of beauty to share. On my worst days the sunrise and/or sunserts are so glorious if that's all I have I am still very lucky and still have enough to give:)
I looked up the Sesame Street video that was referenced; beautiful.
It sounds to me like Sr. Joan is speaking of honest beauty, not that which is contrived, unnatural, false beauty.
I think that old women's faces are about the most beautiful things there are; old men's, too, but especially old women's. I once heard a story of a red-haired boy telling his grandma how the kids teased him about his red hair and freckles. His grandma told him that the most beautiful face she knew belonged to a little boy with red hair and freckles. Looking at her with his eyse of love, he told her that the most beautiful face he knew had wrinkles. Beauty can be found where Love is found.
Hi Jan - Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - and we should all recognise that we're beautiful and that we're all valuable.
There's far too much triviality and lack of respect in this world of ours - your readers are all in their small ways correcting this ..
Hope you're having a good weekend at the Conference .. with beautiful women! and men ...
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Positive Letters Inspirational Stories
Oh Jan, beauty is abundant...it is everywhere around us, within us...we are just forgetful creatures at times.
That's why we blog and remind one another through our images, poetry,heart-spoken words, videos and responses to one another...WE ARE BEAUTY unfolding...blossoming flower over the internet...and then we look out our REAL windows and at the faces of our loved ones, strangers on the street...trees now mostly bare, their fingers reaching up into the sky...leaves scattered below in tapestries of gold/red/orange/brown/deep purple...BEAUTY IS INDEED ABUNDANT
xoxoxo
Laura
Beauty is one of my main joys, in nature and art, our world would be so dead without it. xoxo
Christine,
I was NOT familiar with this book and will definitely check it out. Thank you!
Joanne,
So true! If we have the eyes to see...And it IS busyness, moving to fast, our mind filled with distractions that keeps us from seeing the beauty.
Kel,
OH, how fun to share such a moment with a koala friend. I can only imagine how beautiful...Lucky you!
Diantha,
This Sesame Street episode sounds just delightful. Perhaps we can find it on youtube. What a lovely reminder...
GreenWhisper,
Thank you! Glad it touched your heart.
Lance,
Love this grand noticing and meditation. You know, Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh suggests something similar with looking at the lines in our palms. That they are pathways of ancestry and he invites us to think about all those (in our family) who came before us...whose blood runs through ours.
I wish you much success this week with this soulful exercised you've designed for yourself. Beautiful!
Joy,
Yes, you are so blessed to have such beauty surrounding you. It is also a blessing that YOU have the mind, heart and soul to cherish it. :-)
Rose,
A beautiful sharing! I love this story and it is a powerful testimony to seeing others through the lens of love. :-) And you found the video? Now I will search...Thank you!
Hilary,
Your words are a blessing. Yes, we are all beautiful. May we all see each other's unique beauty and gifts...(The conference was amazing. Still savoring every morsel.)
Laura,
So many ways, as you say, to focus the eyes of our heart. To find beauty in a multitude of things. Natural and manmade (art especially, words, too). And, yes, through blogging we remind each other of that—regularly!
Annie,
As a creator of much beauty, you definitely know how important it is to focus our attention this way. To find the good, right and true in all that we can. :-)
Post a Comment