30 December 2010

Written on the 30th of December - but posted today.  Sorry for the delay. 

Beauty is everywhere!

I must be in a very good mood this morning, as all I can see is delight and beauty.  This is not my normal way - tending as I do to a touch of melancholy and a long list of serious endeavors.  But, yesterday, Emily and I spent a record eight hours shopping.  We tried on clothes and shoes and hats and scarves - ogled and giggled over colors and prices and people - and at the end of the day, realized that perhaps, with a little loving attention, we could learn to see beauty even in the 7x lighted magnifying mirrors we bought for our homes!  We thought, maybe, we had been wrong about a great many things - and that we could enter the land of the beautiful.

So as I mark the end of the year, I find myself thinking about the ways in which beauty lives right here with me and in me - and in all that I love.  I remember my friend Ray saying one time that the one common thread he could see in all of his friends was their beauty - he went on to say that it was not always the physical beauty that drew him in.  I know what he means - there is a tension between the images of pop culture - rolling in unrelenting tidal waves, tsunami's of style drowning us all - and that singularity, that uniqueness, that light in the eyes, openness in the heart, aspirations of kindness and excellence that move you from awe to delight, and maybe even devotion.

Now that the house is empty and all are home, or at least headed for home, I clean the house and prepare for the high holy day of New Years Day. Put away the Christmas presents, sweep and dust and mop the floors. Run the vacuum, wash the bed linens and bathrooms. And if I can hold the mood - I will stay close to this sense of beauty for a little longer.