Wednesday, May 11, 2011

#2 of 100 Simple Suggestions... Appreciate beauty where you find it

I have a friend who cannot resist beauty. The problem is that she has to buy it, wherever she finds it, and take it home with her. She has a small home, and it is crammed with stuff. Gorgeous stuff, yes, but there is so much of it that there is no way to take it all in. Beautiful things line every shelf and corner and nook and cranny, but it overwhelms the eye. If there was one pretty thing on each shelf, it could be admired, but there are so many that everything is a jumbled mess.

Today's moodling is a simple encouragement to appreciate beauty where we find it in order to leave space in our lives to appreciate beauty. If we're having to dust, sort, organize and redecorate to keep our beautiful things and our lives in order, we're missing a lot of less tangible beautiful things, those experiences that we could be having if we weren't dusting, sorting, organizing or redecorating.

So whether it's a gorgeous vase in a shop on Whyte Avenue, or a pot of beautiful but fussy flowers (I've never managed to keep cyclamen looking like they did when I brought them home from the store), if we're living simply, it's usually better to appreciate beauty where we find it rather than bringing it home to clutter up our living space.

Today I'm appreciating the tulips on the south side of my house!

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? See here.

3 comments:

NatureGirl said...

EXACTly the idea I have been trying to wrap my head around for so long! Thank you for articulating it and helping my understand myself a little better.

PS You live in a beautiful part of the world. I have toured around Alberta and BC a bit and fell in love. Of course I have had an enormous crush on Burton Cummings forever, so I will have to make it up to Manitoba someday too...see if I can find him.

Nicola said...

I love the sunflowers in the strip of wasteground on Whyte Ave, opposite Earth'S General Store. Whenever I go past there I smile and think how pretty they look, an wonder who took the time to plant them.

Maria K. said...

I remember hearing about Guerilla gardeners last summer, but not a peep this summer. I wonder if Michael K. from Earth's General planted the sunflowers... he's the kind of guy who would, for sure!