Beauty
Last week I was struck by the number of comments I heard or read about the beauty of this season. Photos of leaves sparkling with frosty dew, skeletal trees reaching up towards wide skies, golden light skimming the smooth curves of an ice-hardened earth have filled my facebook news feed.
It is as though the beauty is a wonderful surprise to us in a time we remember as being bleak. As though beauty has crept up, unexpected, to delight us, maybe evendraw a gasp from some place deep inside. As though our body wants to drink or breathe in the beauty as a
source of nourishment. Then we feel the joy of that nourishment. From a subtle flicker in our belly to a great wave that moves our lips into a smile.
As our gaze is drawn to linger longer upon the beauty, the intimacy of the encounter deepens and the exchange can feel reverent. There can even be a sense of being 'moved' or 'stirred' by these encounters. As though beauty had reached deep inside and touched us in a way our mind had not planned for.
As we become more aware of these encounters and offer them our full attention , we notice beauty revealing itself in unexpected places, catching us unawares as we interact with the ordinary.
November 2016 Thank you to Karen Quaintmere for the Photograph