There are times when I
have had the opportunity to walk our dog in the early morning. We have a lovely view of the sunrise emerging
over distant trees and the gift of uncultivated fields. There is a stillness, if not a silence, that
is sometimes palpable and an expanse of sky that offers free breathing and
eternal seeing.
I’ve walked our fields sleepy,
angry, joyful, confused, yearning for spiritual connection, deep in thought,
burdened with worry, light with a sense of abundance. I sometimes ask for wisdom from the fields
and sometimes dance with abandon in the labyrinth. More often than not I am full of myself,
trying to make sense of my being or a shape to my living. I’m sure the fields are constantly shouting
in their own ancient knowing, “lighten up!” and when I sense that beckoning, I
become aware of beauty.
Sometimes when I take in a sunrise,
when I let myself open as far as I can -- my mind, my body, my spirit -- the presence of beauty overwhelms me. I cannot take it all in and yet it is there
for the taking. The generosity of beauty
is astounding. It is ever
available. It exists regardless of our
gaze or opinion.
The phrase: “beauty is in the eye
of the beholder” is not about our power
of judgment – that is, whether something is beautiful or not – but our
willingness to see. Of course there
is preference and taste. Things appeal
differently to different people and there are different resonances of being
which can harmonize or seem dissonant.
But all of it, all that is around us and within us has a beauty about
it. That beauty is depth of being – that
beauty is the authentic call to become fully alive.
