marriner's Compass | Beauty

REV. GAIL LINDSAY MARRINER

​UU Santa Fe Minister

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Beauty is our Soul Matters theme for July – and as I approach it with an open heart and gentle curious attention that we explored in June, I have been unearthing  many delightful and thought provoking ideas. You will hear about many of them in the services this month – but you don’t need to wait until Sunday! Let me invite you to begin exploring this theme on your own. As you go about your ordinary life this month I invite you into a beauty scavenger hunt.  I invite you to ask your self “what do I find beautiful?” You might discover you are attracted to symmetry and intricate detail, to vibrant color or shiny chrome. You might surprise yourself and discover the beauty of perfect iambic pentameter or the rhythms of big band jazz. Careful handcrafted object might catch your eye or maybe its machined perfection that makes your heart sing. There are so many places to find beauty: in nature, the arts, the sciences and technology. In Folk Art, Native American art and mid- century modern. How do you understand beauty? Which senses come to the forefront for you?

As you go about your days,I invite you to turn your open hearted awareness to the beauty around you. Go someplace you know you will find beauty or look around your daily environment. It’s easy to find beauty at the opera or the botanical garden, but can you discover beauty at the grocery store or the gas station? What about in your doctor’s office or in the mail piled on the kitchen counter? If you are so moved, and if it seems appropriate see if you might respond to the beauty you encounter by creating beauty of your own – a photo, a drawing, a poem…   

Here are some categories of beauty I have been discovering this month perhaps they will give you ideas of where to begin your beauty scavenger hunt: youthful beauty, the beauty of age, beautiful relationships, natural beauty, wild beauty, extravagant beauty, subtle beauty, cultivated beauty, fractal beauty, symmetrical beauty, hand crafted beauty, machined beauty, beautiful spaces, beautiful landscapes, beautiful patterns, beautiful colors sounds, textures, flavors, fragrances, beautiful words, beautiful movement, unexpected beauty…

How many different kinds of beauty can you discover?

How may different kinds of beauty can you appreciate?
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Walk in beauty friends,   
Rev. Gail

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