Surprised By Beauty: It's the Little Things

This week I saw these.

Perhaps my favorite thing about carrying my camera everywhere I go is the eye I have developed because of it. An eye for spotting the little things. The way a fern is unfurling, or an orange flower that stands out against an old piece of wood.

I look up at the sky more often.

I look down at the ground.

I stop.

I am always waiting to be surprised by beauty.

It's everywhere. Really it is.

I take great joy in the beauty I find in nature. It fills my soul.

But there is beauty in my everyday also.

That, after all, is the whole reason I blog. To celebrate the beauty in my everyday.

So, for the next few weeks, I am going to change up the images in this series. Instead of my finds from nature, I will post some things beautiful from my everyday.

And I will ask you, what is beautiful in your everyday?

Think about it. That's your homework.

Greta

"The world is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be happy as kings."

Robert Louis Stevenson

Suprised By Beauty: Up and Down

Don't forget to look up.

And down.

Beauty is all around.

Look for it.

And enjoy it.

I am hoping you find beauty today.

Until tomorrow,

Greta

"The world is so full of a number of things

I'm sure we should all be happy as kings."

Robert Louis Stevenson

*With credit to CS Lewis for the original title idea.

Surprised By Beauty

A grey, rainy wintery day.

A bend in the road.

This.

Surprised by beauty.

"The world is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be happy as kings."

Robert Louis Stevenson

*With credit to CS Lewis for the original title idea and to Fallbrook, whose beauty surprises me always.

Wednesday's Happy as a King List: the Sky

The world is full of such a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings.

Robert Louis Stevenson

On my list right now: the sky. I have been quite taken with the sky lately. Since I'm up so early, I've been fortunate to see some marvelous sunrises. And there have been fantastic sunsets. too. But even in the middle of the day I like to stop, to look up and to see the clouds. I like to notice the brilliant blue of the sky on a fall day, the way the wind pushes the clouds and how the sky is never the same.

Isn't that amazing?

It changes all day long, every day, forever.

We live in an amazing world.

Sunrise

Noon

Sunset

Stop and take a look up today.

And tell me, what's on your happy list?

Wednesday's Happy As a King List

The World is so full of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all be happy as kings.

Robert Louis Stevenson

This is one of my favorite poems. It is so short, but really, quite profound. We live in such an amazing place. How often do we let the day go by and we never stopped to notice the many wonderful things, the simple, everyday things that make up our world? I know I take a lot for granted. In the spirit of this poem, here are a few of the things making me, happy as a king.

Acorns

Pumpkins that come in every shape, size and color

and the people who care enough to plant 22 different varieties

Sunflowers

Little hands, holding little pumpkins

Check back here, every Wednesday, for the things that made it to my list for the week. Just stopping to look and marvel, to say thank you, for these little things makes a difference in my day.

Join me, won't you?

What's on your list?

A Poem for you Today

Dreams

by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

I have always loved Langston Hughes' Dreams poems. They speak to anyone who has longing in their heart for something, someone, someplace.

The photo above reminds me of this poem. Yesterday I walked along the San Gabriel River Pathway with my kids. I am sure up in the San Gabriel mountains the river is wild and free, beautiful and green. By the time it reaches us, almost to the sea, it is confined to a concrete channel, gray and uninspiring. I couldn't help but feel a little depressed as I looked at the graffiti, the shopping cart lying in the water, the paper cup floating by. How ugly it all was.

But then, we saw the birds. Ducks, a Blue Heron and the Snowy Egret. In the middle of the ugliness, there is still beauty to be found. If we don't look for it, we've lost our ability to dream, and "life is a barren filed."

What are you dreaming of?

Poetry Wednesday

I've decided Wednesday will be poetry day. It's the middle of the the week, and we all might need a little pick me up. Beautiful language often helps pull me out of the mire of a bad day. (well, that and chocolate) It helps shift my focus. Sometimes I need that. Maybe you do too.

Here's one for today.

There Is No Frigate Like a Book

by Emily Dickinson

There is no frigate like a book

to take us lands away.

Nor any coursers like a page

Of prancing poetry.

This traverse may the poorest take

Without oppress of toll.

How frugal is the chariot

That bears the human soul.

What have you read lately?

A Poem For You Today

It has been a while since we've had a poem. This one is taken from this book:

This Place I Know Poems of Comfort

Poems selected by Georgia Heard

I really love the poems in this this book. They are warm,comforting, quiet and lovely poems. They make me feel good when I read them. Some of my favorite poets are featured. The illustrations are by 18 different artists and are just wonderful.

This poem is very sweet. Maybe you can send it to someone you love.

To You

by Karla Kuskin

I think I could walk

through the simmering sand

if I held your hand.

I think I could swim

the skin shivering sea

if you would accompany me.

And run on ragged, windy heights,

climb rugged rocks

and walk on air:

I think I could do anything at all,

if you were there.

I can't help but think of my man when I read this poem.

My husband is a gem.

He always know when I need a break. "Just be back by morning," he says when I am walking out the door.

He believes in me.

A half hour after I gave birth to our first child, he gave me a string of pearls. I wore them with my hospital gown.

He spent 6 weeks in India with my Dad and I to prove himself worthy of having my heart.

He is my best friend.

I would be lost without him.

Together, we can do anything. Maybe even survive the raising of these 3 little maniacs running around our house.

I think.

A Poem For You Today

This Is Just To Say

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving

for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

By William Carlos Williams

One of my favorite lit professors in college often had us memorize poems. One day, while studying Williams, we had to memorize either this poem, or The Red Wagon. I chose this one. Every single person in the class had to stand up and recite the poem aloud. It was really fun, but then, I am not shy. Every one's version was a little different, emphasis placed on different words, or stanzas.

I think of this poem still, every time I eat plums. Plums are one of my most favorite summer fruits. And they are delicious. Especially when they are so sweet and so cold.

Hope you are enjoying the fruits of summer!

A Poem For You Today

The Swing

by Robert Louis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

"Oh I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child could do!"
"Up in the air and over the wall

Till I can see so wide

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside--"

"Till I look down on the garden green

Down on the roof so brown--

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!"

I have been thinking a lot about poetry lately.  I don't read it often enough anymore.  Being a lit major and then an English teacher, poetry used to be a part of my daily existence.  There are times when a poem captures, with such an economy of words, exactly how I feel.  I don't have the gift of poetry--no economy of words around here.  (my thank you cards, or notes of any sort, are actually kind of a joke because I write so much)  I love the rhythm, the music, of poetry. I love how many poems are very simple, yet hold such depth of meaning.  More than anything, I love that each word in a poem matters.  It has been much thought upon and put in just the right place to create just the right sound or picture. Poems stick with you in a different way than stories do.  I think a beautiful poem is a gift.

This poem, The Swing, for example.  I read this poem often as a child.  It was in a book of poems that we had on our bookshelf.  I liked the illustrations in the book and I liked the different kids of poems it had in it.  I could relate to the child on that swing.  I loved the sound of that poem in my ears.  I never intended to memorize it, yet I did.  It became a part of some dear memories:  that book, those illustrations, and of course, that feeling you get as a child when you go "up in the air and down again". 

I still know the words of that poem and think of it every time I push my babies on the swing.  I would imagine that they too will someday know the words to this poem.  I hope to endow them with the words to many others.  

We read many sorts of  poems.  They often like the silly ones, but it is foolish to think that a child can only read  children's poetry.  While they may not explore the deeper meanings of William Blake's, The Tyger, there is no reason they cannot enjoy this poem at whatever level they are at now.  James and William both like that poem.  They enjoy the image of the tiger  and how fierce he sounds. At some point in time, we will explore the questions Blake is asking about God in that poem: " did He who made the lamb make thee?"  Until that time, we listen to the music of the words and ask, "what's an anvil?"

I'm ready for poetry to become a part of my daily existence again.  I'll share some with you.