An unexpected gift

My friend just returned from a trip abroad and brought me this gift.

She thought it was a work of art and I agree.

She told me that she actually had no idea it was white chocolate with dried strawberries on top until later when she took a closer look!

I decided to put it here because the point is -

the art of something is always what grabs one's attention first.

So cloth your life with art and aesthetics and then

be sure that what is contained therein is also beautiful.

The Very Edge of Things

In recent months, many friends have lost family members.

I remember how it was for me when my parents died and I hope I have been at least

a little helpful to the ones I have talked to.

Why, you may say, do I have a photograph of a house that is literally hugging the very edge of the road? How does that have anything to do with this subject?

I am thinking that when one has not died themselves, but is hit hard by the loss of a person

dear to them, that is it like being on the edge of life itself.

It can be hard to get the distinction between what happened to the other person

and what is happening to them.

To be able to step back and regain one's sense of Life and one's self and then

to proceed on in the fullness of Life that one actually has and can have again

is the challenge.

To not become the effect of what happened to the other person.

The Beauty in Small Things

This entire arrangement, vase and all, is no bigger than 3 inches.

The blooms are from my early summer garden and in bringing

their early tiny flowers inside, it gave me the promise

of bigger things to come.

So let's celebrate small things that are beautiful and see what

great and gorgeous things may come of them.

Children come to mind.

Go closer

Some posts back, I showed the photo of this whole arrangement including the vase. The vase is no more than three inches high and so you see it is quite the tiny display.

Now to come closer, with the magic of the camera and see yet more

of the beauty of these tiny bits of my garden.

Some years ago when my Dad was still alive, I bought a scanner.

I did it to copy photos onto my computer scrapbook of little snapshots from his childhood.

They were all sepia-toned and rather small. I carefully removed each one and scanned it in.

The wonder of it was that for the first time EVER, these precious shots of days long gone were made larger than he or anyone had ever seen them.

They became a slideshow on my laptop for him and the family.

Small things really treasured and noticed.

Waiting to be chosen

These little guys sit patiently waiting for a student to draw or paint them in one of

my art classes. Sometimes I imbue them with life which is a leftover of

childhood and a fun one at that.

But they are inanimate and I am animate.

They have to wait to be chosen.

I can wait to be chosen.

I should chose.

That's way the better thing to do.

Round and Round!

There's nothing quite so marvelous as a beautiful old carousel. But have you

ever considered as you go round and round in your life that there may be a

tiger right behind you?

That you may get lulled into a sort of stupor because of the apparency of things

being as they always are, and yet, when one is in a sort of haze due to doing

things routinely on automatic that you miss stuff?

You can miss the beautiful stuff and you can miss the stuff that you had better handle.

This is the carousel at Glen Echo Park in Maryland.

Be flexible

OK, so this is a funny photo to go with this idea, but listen!

I am finding as I get older that I get into such grooves that they can turn

into (god forbid) ruts!

Of course each of us has to assess which is which, but I recommend that

we all take a moment from time to time and see what we can change out

from old patterns and get a new look at things from a different viewpoint.

My cat inspires me to consider that even if I am not as physically flexible as she is,

I can be flexible in my life's activities so the grooves don't turn into ruts!

The personal value of visual beauty

Most of us know how we feel when there is a messy room to clean up. Yuck. The disorder of it affects our sense of peace and order. It is soul-satisfying to see it all fixed up.

This is not a small matter.

Continual disorder can reflect our mental state.

Temporary disorder affects our mental state.

When I see the beauty in a sparkly clean wine glass, all the reflections dancing in it, I see order as well. Smudges on the glass would distract from the beauty there.

Disorder distracts us from moving ahead because so much is incomplete that it can

trap us in the past.

I have just completely revamped my office. And now I have the feeling that I can move ahead with my projects, instead of having to override what is unaddressed and confusing.

I salute order, and in order there is much beauty to be found.