The Medicine of Beauty:The Wisdom of PRactice
I have lived in Oregon for 30 years and still when the sun comes out after months and months of cold, dark, gray..I smile inside. So when my dear friend invited us for a “porch” sit the other day with a sun ball sky, I smiled on the outside too.
Arriving that day was still hard. My heart was heavy, a blurry and furry of thoughts had been scattering through my mind. Amongst early morning meditations, candle light, sacred smells, flowers and branches I watch my mind and I feel my heart. I do my best to tend to myself so I can tend to others as well. Some times are easier than others. But I do know something. From repetition and reminding, remembering and recording:
The medicine of beauty helps
I’m NOT talkin fancy or curated, nor necessarily purchased or procured. I AM talkin the undeniable and uncountable shades of green the Earth has shared. The flowers so generous I find myself bowing my head to say “thank you, how did you know to go all out like this?!?!?”. The morning sun, like they are so excited to greet us, they rise earlier and earlier each day to make it so. The early blooms, the early birds, the early morning star. The medicine of beauty does a thing. And when I went to my friend Polly’s house along side my partner, in the mid morning light, and I walked into her garden of glory, all by hand, tended for a very long time, beauty rushed right over and pulled up a chair.
Where does the nourishment of beauty live in your life? It almost seems like a ridiculous thought, all things considered. It’s no joke though, I mean it sincerely.
For me and through me, beauty exists as food for my heart & spirit. Beauty is something to be tended and fed, grown with reverence and can be a sacred relationship linking us to known and unknown portals that are keys to deepening from within. They are acts of honoring and offerings that are done without any expectation of getting anything back. Beauty has been a constant and striking teacher and companion for as long as I can remember, so it feels important to understand them and be able to articulate it too. Especially now, when so little makes sense. The more time I spend reflecting on the muse of beauty, the more I see, feel, smell, hear and taste her importance.
Importance as in the reminder to engage my senses every day with something that inspires me. Whether it be color, texture, taste or tingle, being with beauty helps me to gather and focus-framing into the day with a moment of clarity and connection. (If you’d like to read more on beauty sense body practices read HERE ).
Beauty is also one of the most important ways I show up for prayer. And with it, a deep offering into the cycles of life, the nature of rhythms and an acknowledgement of feeling into the collective conscious that we are all apart of. This web that weaves and connects us to something much bigger than I can ever control, will or forget. Beauty breaths, lives and extends into everything. To pray to beauty is to pray to all of this, I believe.
For now simple beauty and awareness is helping me: it is slowing things down, it is putting me back into my body, it is giving me strength and acknowledging the collective. Beauty is helping me stay connected.
Where is beauty showing up for you? Keep it simple. Make it easy. Each day. Make it your prayer of inner support so that you can show up in your day and in your life, for little and/or big reasons.
With love & beauty,
Danielle