Considering the Lily
Finding Beauty in the Bleak Mid-Winter
In the bleak mid-winter: we are there, even though, technically, less than two weeks into the official season of said bleakness.
Flat, monochrome, seemingly lifeless and bereft through the window, much of what we’d call beautiful from our experiences of nature in spring and summer are missing.
We don’t stop wanting and needing beauty in our lives in winter, but we have to look in different places to find it: to family and friends and the goodness (a close relative of beauty) in our neighborhoods, local pubs and cafes, churches and the cozy space around the wood stove with friends or a good book.
There is beauty there. We see it with more than our retinas. We know beauty in that part of our deepest selves where gratitude also lives. It draws us into the landscape, interior or exterior, to feel and encounter more than to know. We want it around us, because it seems to lead somewhere beyond ourselves.
Some say that the Problem of Beauty is (or could be) instructive.
Quote From The Problem of Beauty
Mortimer Adler: Some Thoughts On Beauty
Your photo suggests that when the earth is bleak the beauty of heaven really stands out.
I agree with Him - and would suggest it leads somewhere a great deal more than our limited and limiting minds could ever expect or imagine : ). A Blessed New Year to you and your readers Fred.