All the blues of the sky meet the sea and wash up onto the sand. I identified them all. Cobalt, cerulean, ultramarine, indigo, prussian, thalo, turquoise; every shade of blue, sometimes leaning towards violet and pale transparent green, like sea glass in sunlight. Harsh realities of Canadian winters are stowed away with feather jackets and bulky but practical boots. This beauty is the reprieve from the struggles that lay beyond this shore.  Every sense registers beauty. It is indeed as John O’Donahue says in “Beauty: Rediscovering the True Sources of Compassion, Serenity, and Hope,” a balm. 

“Seeing is not merely a physical act; the heart of vision is shaped by the state of soul”

And likewise the state of the soul is shaped by the vision.

“Wabi-Sabi is a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. It is a beauty of things modest and humble. It is a beauty of things unconventional.”                                                                                                                                           Leonard Koren   

Dear Beauty, thank-you for showing up in all places, for the soul expanding reward for anyone who is paying attention.  I see you in the blues, and light, and in the crumble-down decay, tarnished broken-down TRUTH that is a reminder that nothing is permanent, in the wrinkles of a newborn and the crows feet impressed at the corner of eyes.

Dear Beauty, though I try to trap you with my camera, it is never the same. The memory of you fires up sparkling lights in the quiet rooms of my brain, but they are embers compared to when I first experienced you and basked in a wave of glorious dazzle that triggered wonder and gratitude.

True beauty activates wonder.

Wonder opens the soul to limitless possibility.

Wonder is the medicine that sustains us.

Beauty, wonder, gratitude, nature; medicine for modern crisis, grief and trauma. Without the experience of beauty how would we know what to value outside of its financial return or practical use. Would we find a world without beauty one worth existing in? 

“There are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man [or woman] break down and weep.”

Edward Abbey

We need places that affect us this way so that we can make decisions based in the purest of values. It is one of our highest human callings.

Recommended reading: Beauty by John O’Donahue & Wabi sabi  by Leonard Koren

Coranne Creswell