Discover Beauty Right Where You Live
Do you find yourself running in six directions, unable to remember the last time you experienced wonder? Or paused to discover beauty? Or paused...period? When is the last time you thought that where you live--right here, right now--is beautiful?
Beauty. What is the purpose? Why do we need it? Do we need it?
Those are some of the thoughts I want to explore in a new series entitled: "Discover Beauty Right Where You Live." I think you will be surprised by the answers.
In my darkest season, I discovered that beauty spoke with a silent voice that led me to God. The recapture of wonder healed deep places inside me. I believe you can discover that also.
First, a story....
The Big Bear with his Dipper tail dominated the constellations in the night sky above our heads when we settled on a hillside off the Pima Trail on South Mountain. Our large boulder couch, next to a three-armed saguaro, provided a clear view of the super-blue-red-moon-lunar eclipse in the Western sky.
At 5:40 a.m., a shadow covered more than half the moon, the red hue faintly visible.
On the surrounding ridge line, other sky viewers chose their own perfect spots for the show, their presence made known by the brief flashing of their phones and cameras. I couldn't help but think of them as tiny beacons in the stillness of the night.
We sipped hot beverages as we documented the Lunar Event of the Century.
Desert beauty imprinted our memories.
Leo the lion batted the moon sphere in the heavens as the shadow lengthened slice by slice. Jupiter shone--triumphant--while the pin-prick red planet Mars kept company with Scorpio. Virgo couldn't be bothered and lay lengthwise, brushing her toes against the southern horizon. Apparently, she was not an early morning riser. At least not that day.
We could relate. When the alarm had blared at 4:30 a.m., we had almost talked each other into settling for a quick view in the backyard and a return to warm blankets and more sleep. (The challenge when a spouse is your accountability partner.) The draw of the once-in-my-lifetime-event had proven irresistible, even though my husband had to come in a suit for an 8:00 a.m. meeting.
But it was more than that.
More than a once-in-a-lifetime event.
More than a single memory.
More.
Beauty compelled us.
We have discovered we need to spend time in places where we are small and God is big--larger than life. We need to hear the star song with its message of the glory of God and the reminder that He is good and continues to create good purposes in us.
God is creating beauty around us, in us, and through us.
When I was in my darkest season--after cancer and in the grief of losing both parents--I struggled to hear God in a noisy world of too many words. Spiritual disciplines I had relied on my entire life seemed flat. I was numb. Exhausted. Tired in the deepest places where my hopes and dreams once lived.
In the book, Picking Up the Pieces, authors Sherri Magee and Kathy Scalzo describe this place as "a lost land, an in-between place, limbo, a weird nothingness, a neutral zone."
Soul neuropathy.
Maybe you've been there? Maybe you are still there?
Have you lost wonder and beauty due to the hard places of your life?
Does it matter?
I finished a book last week entitled Beauty for Truth's Sake by Stratford Caldecott. I must warn you, that the book is a theological thesis with deep thoughts that often lost me, but I found myself intrigued by this quote by Hans Urs von Balthasar who states that if we sneer at beauty, a person "can no longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love."
Caldecott surmises that our ability to pray comes from "a love that reveals the beauty we long for." Our most basic spiritual conversations in prayer are tied to beauty. In essence, beauty draws us to the presence of God.
Powerful stuff. '
Do you believe this is true? Could the ability to appreciate beauty be tied to our ability to love and to pray, to come close to God?I'm not talking about beauty "out there somewhere," as we escape the reality of our circumstances. But beauty, right here and right now, in the complicated details of our lives.
Are you willing to go on an exploration of beauty with me in the next few weeks? Will you look for beauty in the everyday world where you live?
Want to do something tangible? I will post at least one photo this week on Instagram and/or Facebook with the hashtag #wherebeautydwells. Simple, right? Want to try? I would love to see where beauty dwells in your world, in the ordinary details of where you live. I will do the same. I will post a few of my favorites on the blog next week.
Let's see where looking for beauty takes us. I would love for us to recapture a sense of wonder, a wonder that brings healing and leads us into deeper places with God, into deeper conversations in prayer.
Also, I am doing several giveaways during the series. Who doesn't like free stuff? I have some beautiful note cards, a hope ornament, and a copy of the book "Under a Desert Sky." Sign up for the giveaways here. You only need to sign up once. This registers you for the blog too, but you can always unsubscribe after the giveaway. No pressure.
Next week, some HIV-positive students will be sharing their views on beauty. I will also be interviewing some artists and cancer survivors.Why is beauty important in your life? Do you find yourself struggling to retain a sense of wonder? Do you think beauty is tied to your prayers and relationship to God?