On Beauty

A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

John Keats

I'm thinking a lot about beauty at the moment, not only about beauty as form or aesthetic, but about its meaning. The photograph above, of two horses I know and spend time with several times a week, is beautiful in the traditional sense. Two elegant mares, trimmed with the morning light of early autumn, in a field of green and tangled grass. It's the kind of picture found in calendars and on notebooks, in one sense commonplace.

I see something different, something more than a pretty picture. I see two mares whose quiet presence often settles my noisy mind. I see a place in which I feel safe and home. And I remember the day this picture was taken, what I was feeling, the shape of my thoughts. What I see is formed by relationship and memory.

This morning I listened to a turtle dove, cooing in my neighbour's tree. The sound reminded me of walks with my grandmother as a little girl. She'd say to me, "Listen to the turtle doves. They are calling your name - 'Ca-ro-lyn, Ca-ro-lyn.'" And so the song of this ordinary bird is precious to me. My world is full of such things - the scent of honeysuckle that reminds me of my childhood home; the red blaze of Betelgeuse that conjures memories of stargazing with my father; the tin of little feathers and seeds my son collected for me when he was a small boy, a reminder of his little voice: "Some pixie love for you, Mom."

The beauty of all these things sustains me, lifts my thoughts, encourages me to live in ways that extend nurture to others. Perhaps this is why I love poetry that celebrates ordinary beauty, in words that are accessible and nourishing. I love Kerri Ni Dochartaigh's thoughts: "Those who know me know well how I adore Mary Oliver, how little I care about the chiding views of those that find her cheesy, who neglect to enter deep enough into her words and how they make them feel to understand the power and edge they hold in equal measure." (These words are from her post, Tendering, which you can find here.)

For me, beauty is essential to wellbeing, to what it means to be human. And I hold stubbornly to the idea that in spite of all that I see going on in the world, beauty will endure.

With appreciation,

Carri.

P.S. I encourage you to watch Taking Beauty Seriously, a conversation between Dougald Hine and Caroline Ross. I have a poem by James Wright in this week's Cloudlight post, To Nourish You, here, and some thoughts on looking back in last week's By Silvered Light, here.