Skip to main content

To Behold the Beauty

As far back as I can remember, I have loved the beautiful and despised the ugly.  The truly ugly, not the “beautiful in the eyes of the beholder” type of stuff, but the bottom-of-the-barrel grotesque.  However, this post is not about the ugly.  It’s about the beautiful!

A clear night sky: Crushed velvet that the stars twinkle from like so many diamonds in a jeweler’s display.  The fiery dance of Van Gogh’s Starry Night, a blazing tumult over the sleeping town.  A cloth draped over a dome, with pin pricks illuminated by the glory beyond.

North Coast Redwoods: The soft sound of moss and damp earth underfoot.  Light filtering through a thousand green branches, bathing everything emerald.  The scent of a millennium years of death and rebirth, one never present without the other.

Waterfalls: The continuous cascade of silver pouring over the wet-blackened rocks.  Ferns clinging bravely between the stones.  The foaming torrents into a calm, cool pool beneath.

I love them!  I love stars and redwoods and waterfalls and flowers and chubby baby cheeks and color and movement and light.  Something inside me responds to these things with a feeling akin to pain, the piercing desire of my soul to break free from mortal confines and soar into the embrace of everything lovely.  This pain that causes my eyes to tear up with the sheer, overwhelming joy of the transcendentally beautiful.   


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Adoption Journey Thus Far (Chronological List of Posts)

I've now written enough blogs about adopting that it's time to organize them for someone who may be new to my blog and wants to read the archives in order.  I've labeled the adoption blogs {#} as well as listed them below! Additionally, I have now labeled all adoption blogs under "Adoption."  If you click on that link at the bottom of this post, it will pull up all adoption blogs in newest to oldest order. Blog Post #1   -- A Journey of a Thousand Miles: The Single Step {#1} Blog Post #2   -- Stepping Further: Part One {#2} Blog Post #3   -- Stepping Further: Part Two {#3} Blog Post #4   -- Down the Road We Go! {#4} Blog Post #5   -- Tiptoe or Leap? {#5} Blog Post #6   -- Hurry Up and Wait {#6}  Blog Post #7   -- Where Did That Wall Come From? {#7}  Blog Post #8   -- The Crack in the Wall {#8} Blog Post #9 -- Fork in the Road {#9} Blog Post #10   -- Here We Stand {#10} Blog Post #11   -- Moving Forward {#11} Blog Post #12  

Old or Retro [Project 24 #19]

Glowing screens. Flashing lights.  Chiming alerts.  The modern age is indeed amazing in its plethora of technology.  There is almost always “an app for that.” Then there are those of us who cling willfully to the past.  I am writing this blog entry in my notebook with a pen (my favorite G-2 gel pen, itself a technological wonder).  And until September of last year, I had a paper calendar.  I’m not referring to wall-calendar type . . . one still hangs on my wall for quick reference and enjoyment of the attached scenery.  But a spiral-bound calendar that functioned as my second brain.  The type that you would find in the day planners so popular in the 1990's and early 2000's.  And I stubbornly refused to give it up despite my husband’s pleading (and often disparaging) attempts to convince me to let go of such “ancient” technology. So what changed my mind?  Several things, honestly, but mostly a diabolical and long-reaching “plan” on the part of my computer-savvy spouse.  Slow

In China: Nanchang {#29}

My last blog post was EIGHT MONTHS ago!  We were on the verge of heading to China, and I switched to Facebook for posting while we were there.  What is my excuse since we got back?  I am going to go with the golden oldie – parenting 4 children.  Having enough brain power to rub two thoughts together was a lacking commodity.  Summer vacation has FINALLY arrived, and so I will start with two blog posts (condensed from the original Facebook posts) highlighting our journey to China. October 31, 2015 (China Time) After 26 hours of travel, we've arrived safely in Nanchang!  We get our little girl in 16 1/2 HOURS! November 1, 2015 We got off the elevator and walked around to the lobby. I was scanning the clusters of seats for the other adoptive family (because, let's face it, white people are easy to spot around here). Instead, I saw HER! They were already here, and I saw Baby! Heart leaped! Breath stopped. The first couple of hours were amazing in their ease. Not a single t