Beautiful. We should use that word more often. Or maybe - what I really mean - we should make more conscious effort to appreciate - consider - contemplate - value beautiful things, beautiful scenes, beautiful feelings, beautiful memories. There is too much ugliness around. It distracts us, riles us, worries us. If you are not careful, Ugly takes over and Beautiful is resigned to the shadows.
Beautiful is the best antidote to anxiety or distress about all that is ugly in the world. "Pleasing to the eye or ear or mind or soul" - that is what beautiful means.
When I think about beautiful - various notions buzz around in the hive that is my head. Naturally, I think of Nature. Within the confines of this blog, I have sought to share some beautiful images from the natural world. Woodland walks, sunsets, beaches, limestone hills and grazing sheep. Nice things, Beautiful things.
I think of my wedding day, the births of our children. I think of dancing round a campfire on the beach at Lindos, Rhodes and swimming out to a distant Mediterranean buoy. And those family holidays in America and walking from Tolaga Bay to Cook's Cove in New Zealand. I think of earlier family holidays in Cornwall and The Lake District - with Mum, Dad and my three brothers. Beautiful.
The Isle of Wight in 1970. "Evita" in 1980. Listening to Leonard Cohen. Hull City finally making it into The Premier League on My 24th 2008. My cats - Oscar, Blizzard and Boris. Beautiful.
Such beautiful things, to counter Ugly. We should bring them to the front more often. Push Ugly to the side of the stage along with Trump and Brexit and global warming and crime and personal regrets and things we did not say or do and money and Yemen and plastic and sexual abuse and why the dodo disappeared forever. There's too much Ugly.
Beautiful. What springs to mind when you roll that word around in your head?
I didn't know you were a Leonard Cohen fan.....one of my all time favourites!
ReplyDeleteI don't listen to much music now but back in the day I played The Songs of Leonrad Cohen and Songs of Love and Hate over and over... and in 1970 I saw and heard him perform. Poetry in song.
DeleteYP I do think you make a good point. Rather than listen to the negative narrative both in the news and ones head by absorbing & appreciating the beauty that is everywhere - even in the things we take for granted like morning dew, a spiders web... flowers or a view the simple everyday things makes a huge difference to our attitude to our lot.
ReplyDeleteWhat springs to mind for me is probably the experiences I have had on our boat... the places we have been, remote & unspoiled, the color of the water. At times they have also been the most challenging.
I loved my years working with horses and have many special memories of the children we had to our farm for horse riding camps along with our own children - these are the memories I draw on when I cannot sleep or are distressed and I go to that happy place. Thankyou for sharing your thoughts, very uplifting. Elle :)
We should all go to our happy places more often. But Beautiful does not have to be yesterday, it can be today and tomorrow too. Thanks for calling around and thoughtfully considering my blogpost Elle. Love from me in Yorkshire... Neil x
DeleteI haven't been up for half an hour and I have already thought "beautiful!" when I went outside and looked up at the very, very blue sky with the green leaves of the trees against it. A beautiful day here.
ReplyDeleteWho needs medicine when you can have Beautiful and sometimes Peace and Laughter too?
DeleteI love Leonard Cohen, so beautiful and mostly melancholy songs, we have several of his cd's.
ReplyDeleteNew born babies, most things in nature, my five cats, little Bo, moving pieces of music, I could go on. I like to think that I see the beauty in things.
Briony
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It seems to me that in your craft work you are always trying to capture something Beautiful - and if I might say - often succeeding.
DeleteMany times we fail to recognize beauty. Thanks for a reminder of some simple common things which are beautiful
ReplyDeleteI know that you find Beautiful in the birds Red.
DeleteFor me, beauty is entirely connected to nature. Especially when I'm outside and look into the sky, I am transported beyond the cares of the world.
ReplyDeleteI just have to be careful not to fall over or stare at the sun :)
One of my dearest blog friends always looks for the beauty in life, and has been an inspiration to me in that regard.
Some people do seem to have such sunny natures - looking for what's Beautiful and tending to sideline what's Ugly.
DeleteThis is a beautiful post and a wise reminder to us to be aware of the blessings around us. As you say, nature is beautiful. Trees are beautiful to me - my favorite part of nature. Sunrise and sunset. Some people are beautiful, not in looks as much as in kind words and actions. I am a cat lover and all cats are beautiful to me. Some music is so beautiful it can move you to tears. The right words can be beautiful in books or from friends. It is good to remember to look for the beauty in life. Thank you for the reminder.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for giving us a glimpse of what Beautiful means to you Bonnie.
DeleteLovely post. I like your list. Mine would take up the rest of my week to write, let alone the mega giga bites of your blog. But I would include Chopin's music, my grandson Teddy, the flowering cherry outside my studio window this minute, a jay feather my daughter-in-law left behind on her last visit, the blue Swedish sky, and the quick conversation with the lovely guy who passed me two weeks ago on a Didsbury footpath, pushing his baby to sleep. I am sorry to say it would not include the mushy peas I had at the pub later, but would include the battered cod.
ReplyDeleteOh dear - I forgot you were bound for Europe. I wish we had met up. You could have stayed a night or two in our daughter's bed. So you are in Sweden now?
DeleteAh, that's ok YP. I'll save you up for next time, if you still have a spare bed and still offer ...
DeleteNope, I'm home again. 53 amazing days! Phew, it were 'ot, tho'!
Beauty surrounds us...we just have to remember to open our eyes....and not take things for granted.
ReplyDeleteYou are right but it can be easy to forget to do that.
DeleteToday, in America, was a BEAUTIFUL day! I'll let you grok that.
ReplyDeleteI presume you are referring to Michael Cohen. The tide is moving closer to Trump.
DeleteHey, that last pic looks like Blogland! That was a fun episode!
ReplyDeleteThose were the days Kate. I can picture you now in your leopard-print bikini - coming up from the reef with a fat lobster in your hand.
DeleteSometimes I wonder if I am being overly selfish (and maybe naive) in focusing on Beautiful instead of Ugly. There is so much Beautiful in my life (and has been for as long as I can remember) that somehow, Ugly does not stand much of a chance with me. I consider myself extremely lucky. Some would say blessed.
ReplyDeleteYou are fortunate to have a sunny, humble nature Meike. You have known such heartbreak and yet you are grateful and optimistic.
DeleteLucy's ears (beautiful cocker spaniel) curled and black this morning. The red hawthorn berries on our walk. And, not today because they have been moved, the cows with their calves in the field; a brief picture of contentment. Are not all encounters with beauty brief?
ReplyDeletePerhaps they are Thelma. Thanks for sharing your idea of Beautiful.
DeleteI definitely agree with you. I try my best to keep my blogging relatively positive for just this reason, though occasionally I can't help but grouse about Trump or Brexit.
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