Finding Beauty

But I always think that the best way to know God is to love many things.

                                                   Vincent Van Gogh

Mary Oliver, The Sun

Have you ever seen

anything

in your life

more wonderful

than the way the sun,

every evening,

relaxed and easy,

floats toward the horizon

and into the clouds or the hills,

or the rumpled sea, 

and is gone_____

and how it slides again

out of the blackness,

every morning,

on the other side of the world,

like a red flower

streaming upward on its heavenly toils,

say, on a morning in early summer.....

such wild love

do you think there is anywhere, in any language

a word billowing enough

for the pleasure

that fills you, 

as the sun

reaches out,

as it warms you......    

                                                                    mary oliver

Finding love through the eloquence of a poet's words and nature photography.

May this give a moment's pause to your day.

sharon

Sharing on Friday Finds with Kim Klassen

a great place to visit.

Looking Up

When we were in New York what quickly caught my attention were the hundreds of people walking; to and fro, over and under, path or highway, park or business, jay-walking or patiently waiting for lights, but always walking, walking, walking. The “Walkers” for the most part had several things in common: one, they had earphones filling their heads with hypnotic sounds; two, the “Walkers” looked down to the cracks in the cement or just slightly ahead; and three, were usually alone-solo-aloof-self absorbed-single-solitary.


Walking is a positive form of exercise, inviting a new perspective on one’s surroundings, filling senses with sight, sound and smell. But for the most part the “Walkers” looked down absorbed in their ipods and world of schedules and expectations.

But to change one’s direction and LOOK UP there is an entire new world hovering above one’s head; surreal skyscrapers, gigantic cranes with cavernous mouths, deep green trees, stately cathedrals showcasing intricate carving, flags waving and flapping in delicious colors, carvings on fountains and statues, clocks that chime, signs clashing and competing for attention, LED screens on Time’s Square.

UP PUTS ONE IN ANOTHER WORLD.

But there is still another UP. The UP beyond the skyline of New York or any other city. And it is even more amazing, more imaginative, more breathtaking than any fancy human made structure.


This is the MAGICAL WORLD of our SKY, that outer world that poets and dreamers write stories and songs about. Remember Dorothy lamenting, Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

The Sky is a mystical, nowhere land were rainbows dance, a land that we dream of, a place where we contemplate the mysteries of life.

In one month, our family has lost three cherished FRIENDS. Three months ago my mother passed away. Are they in the land that they dreamed of, have they discovered the mystery of life? I do believe that the SKY with its amazing CLOUDS hold part of the answer.

In honor of our beloved friends and mother, grandmother I share with you some favorite photographs of the sky and its dream-inducing clouds.


May they take you over the RAINBOW TO YOUR OWN DREAMS.

May your Sunsets be as beautiful as your Sunrises.