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a quick sketch of the last rose amongst dying fall foliage
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The world we have been given to enjoy is filled aplenty with "things" of Beauty.
It does not take much to please the eye that is open to seeing and the heart that is open to joy.
More often than not, simple things are there to delight us if we are paying attention and are not overlooking them in our search for the grand and the glorious.
. . . The last rose blooming in the tangle of the dying garden bed, glowing amongst the weeds, with the sun setting it aflame for our pleasure.
What a panacea for the spirit these simple beauties can be when we find them!
An excerpt of a poem by John Keats explains it well:
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits . . .
“Some shape of beauty moves” us . . .
And it can be quite simple things.
Last September I posted in an art forum a photo I took of a pear, a simple pear I found amongst other pears at Kroger’s. But this pear had a graceful dried leaf still attached to the stem, and I was struck by how beautiful it was. I carefully brought it home and placed it, almost like an object of art, on the table beside my couch and enjoyed it. But I had the impetus to share its beauty so I photographed it.
This simple pear in its natural beauty somehow caught at the imagination of another artist who saw my photo and inspired him to create this . . . a simply beautiful painting! This painting now hangs in my home as a memento of shared beauty.
He was able to create the painting because he saw the beauty inherent in the single pear and its surroundings in the photograph. At that same time, he had these thoughts below, which he shared in the form of a poem, another avenue of Beauty.
Genesis
So we could see wonder and beauty
In the eyes of a curious child,
So we could hear laughter and music,
He made it so we’d be beguiled.
So we’d see the joy of a mother,
So we’d see the mountains and seas,
He made it so we’d smell the flowers
And listen to wind through the trees.
He made it so we would have peppers,
And pumpkins and gold fields of grain.
He made it so we would have comfort
In the comforting drumbeat of rain.
He made it so we could look up and see stars,
And wonder at how life begins.
So the sugar sweet juice of overripe pears
Could drip from the end of our chins
He made it so we’d see wild ponies,
The saucer like eyes of a fawn.
He made it so we could sleep under the moon,
And wake to a mist shrouded dawn.
He made it, and made us, and all that we see
And He made it to show how He cared.
He made it because it was lovely,
So lovely it had to be shared.
©Christopher Earle
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
A change of mood
And saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
Genesis 1:31 "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
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