BEAUTY IS NOTHING OTHER THAN THE PROMISE OF HAPPINESS

Beauty is a tricky word, as we’ve been brainwashed into believing that it means something like the poet Amber alludes to: skinny, pale, photoshopped models in provocative poses. It’s been so drilled into our heads that this bizarre conformity is the only guise beauty takes that most people walk around feeling particularly unbeautiful. That’s unfortunate, because as those amazing CrimethInc. kids declare: “Beauty must be defined as what we are, or else the concept itself is our enemy. To see beauty is simply to learn the private language of meaning which is another’s life—and recognize and relish what is.”

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THE GOSPEL OF BEAUTY AND THE ART OF APPRECIATION

Springfield’s hobo poet Vachel Lindsay worshiped in the church of the open sky and lived the gospel of beauty. As I remember my outdoor self who greatly enjoys her time in the divine church of the open sky, I usually find myself (weather permitting) with my hands deep in the dirt on the Sabbath. Often was I extended an invitation to join dressed up passersby on the way to their houses of worship. I cannot imagine a church inside four walls to ever be as inviting as communing directly with what I consider the divine, the higher power, life itself. I can’t really describe my religious beliefs, because I don’t believe in absolutes. I don’t hold much in the way of opinion for others to believe or disbelieve. But I do have feelings for what my perception of the divine invokes within me. My hands soak up the earth while my third eye soaks up sunshine. I nurture as I am being nurtured. In what possible way could I more directly commune with the divine than what I experience in the church of the open sky?

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MY WABI-SABI LIFE

Nature's chaotic abundance takes root in an abandoned flower pot.

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese term that does not translate well to English, but using a thousand words, perhaps we shall begin to understand.  Wabi originally referred to the loneliness of living in nature, but now reflects a meaning more of rustic simplicity, freshness, or quietness.  Wabi also refers to the quirks and imperfections that arise during the creation process.  Sabi refers to the beauty which comes into being as something ages.  According to wikipedia, “if an object or expression can bring about, within us, a sense of serene melancholy and a spiritual longing, then that object could be said to be wabi-sabi.”  Also, wabi-sabi “nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect.”

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