by Elizabeth
Venart
The wonder of the Beautiful
is its ability to surprise us. With swift, sheer grace, it is like a divine
breath that blows the heart open.
– John O’Donohue in Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
When the world
of man closed its doors in March last year, the natural world invited us
outside to connect and play. Through gardening and time spent in local parks
and our own backyard, we found in nature a natural balm to the weariness of an
intense and fear-filled time. Nature can be a welcome antidote to stress and
boredom. It provides an alternative to the rowing machines and well-worn tracks
of the gym. It can also offer us something that stretches far beyond simple
diversion or exercise. A walk in nature can be an immersive experience, calming
our nervous system and shifting our perspective.
When we allow
ourselves to inhabit fully the landscape of the present moment, we can delight
in the magic of the changing seasons, marvel at the miracle of flowers rising
through asphalt, and consider with humility our place among the living things
on this planet. Our world as people may have ground to a halt in many ways, but
the rest of the natural world continued. I watched how the birds outside my
kitchen window built nests, as they do each year, fed their babies, plucked
worms and seeds from the ground. I delighted in the birdsong each morning, the
brilliant colors of fall, the snow bathing tree limbs with pearl luminescence.
Life
always has its challenges. Beauty is always there when our eyes are ready to
experience her. A child’s laugh, a cloud-speckled sky, a mother fox and her
five babies, a warm embrace from a friend we haven’t seen in too long.
As
the wheel of the year continued to move in its circular rhythm through the
seasons, my fond anticipation of the daily walk only strengthened. “I wonder
how that cherry tree will look today. . . Will the rhododendron bushes have
loosened their tight buds and exploded into pink today?” Bringing a sense of
wonder to my daily walks (or wanders when I had more time) imbued my days with
delight.
The
newsletter this month – and our social media – will focus on Beauty. I will be
sharing photographs taken during my daily walks over the past year. You will
see what my eyes saw, as I walked through my neighborhood delighting in the unfolding
beauty of each season. These images
are moments that captured my attention, fascinated and moved me. While some are
blossoms and a glimpse of a flower at the peak of its brilliance, others include
transition points between the seasons, moments of awe, and the beauty of growth
and decay intermingled.
As
John O’Donohue so beautifully expresses in Divine Beauty: The Invisible
Embrace:
The
graced eye can glimpse beauty anywhere, for beauty does not reserve itself for
special elite moments or instances; it does not wait for perfection but is
present already secretly in everything. When we beautify our gaze, the grace of
hidden beauty becomes our joy and our sanctuary.
My wish for each
of you is the eye to “glimpse beauty anywhere” and to savor and delight in this
experience.
Elizabeth Venart is the Founder and the
Director of The Resiliency Center and a Licensed Professional Counselor whose
practice focuses on supporting Highly Sensitive Persons, therapists (through
counseling and consultation), and creative and intuitive people seeking more
magic in their lives. She leads a weekly laughter yoga class and hosts a monthly Rumi and Friends Spiritual Poetry Evening to which all are welcome. To learn more, visit her website.
