OVERWHELMED BY BEAUTY

Have you ever admired and enjoyed something so much you felt overwhelmed by beauty? I have and I thought I’d share a few of them with you.

Sunrises. For some reason I enjoy them more than sunsets. Partially because I have a ten foot living room window that gives me an unobstructed view of the morning sky but also because there is something about greeting a new day in such a fine fashion. The ribbons of colors, the flames flaring across the sky. The golden halo over the nearby town.

Birds. I have feeders outside my office window and enjoy watching them flit about to get seeds and suet. There are actually 3 feeders and yet the birds will squabble about property rights. And who can see a bald eagle and not find yourself stirred by the majesty. I once watched a cardinal sitting on a branch in a muddy yard and I thought what a good lesson it was. The bird didn’t look at the mud and complain but it looked upward and sang.

Flowers. They hide in the grass along the road. They blossom madly along fence lines. They grow in profusion in gardens. But even in situations that are less than ideal, they lift their pretty heads to the sun.

The sea or a lake. The sound of the water lapping at the shore, the whitecaps dancing across the surface. The little flash of turquoise before the water flattens. The way the distance is brought toward me in rolling waves.

The drawings of a child. So simple and yet so innocently revealing. I once saw a wall with framed drawings of children. It was magical.

Sky. It’s many moods from sunny to stormy. I read a beautiful description of the sky in The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (a book I highly recommend). He wrote, ‘The underside of the clouds have been shredded. They hung in tatters and a grey mist seeped out.’ Isn’t that a word picture that gives you both a visual and a mood?