PEBBLE
Everything is beautiful when you look at it with love. If you can enjoy the presence of a cat, a bird, a flower, all the world will be yours.
-From the Turkish documentary Kedi (2016), shared by Joanna in Green Bay, WI
BOULDER
If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has the power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.
~Eleanor Duse (shared via friends of silence )
PONDER
I was immediately drawn to today’s Pebble, partly because it reminded me of the remarkable Turkish documentary Kedi that Jamie and I saw during our first year of dating.
Joanna, who shared the quote, told me:
“I aspire to live by it, and usually fail spectacularly. There’s so much haste, worry, anger in our daily lives that we don’t notice the beauty and gentleness around us. Sometimes one fleeting moment of awe can allow us to take a deeper, calmer breath and drop our shoulders. A butterfly. The sun turning a raindrop into a diamond. The glistening of fresh snow. How many times do I walk on by?”
Her reflection paired perfectly with today’s Boulder. Still, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to write about Beauty until this gem of a quote popped into my inbox while I was sitting in a cafe assembling this very issue:
“Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is.”
~Saul Bellow
The words jolted me into fresh awareness. I looked around in awe, suddenly enchanted: intricate flooring patterns, art on the walls, expressions on strangers’ faces. Ordinary things became extraordinary simply because I was paying attention.
So here’s an invitation: keep your eyes open for unexpected intrusions of beauty today. Pause to savor one when it appears. And if you feel like sharing it with me, that’ll sprinkle a little bonus beauty into my week.
Peace,
Paul