Summer Dreams
On my walk this morning I paused and gazed at the tall grass growing along the path that goes through the park area near our house. The breeze caused the stems of grass to gently sway back and forth and I was entranced with their beauty. And seeing that beauty in something so simple as tall stems of grass made me wonder…
Why is Life Beautiful?
I remembered the words of Robin Kimmerer, botanist, writer, and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation…
… the story of when I very proudly entered the forestry school as an 18-year-old and telling them that the reason that I wanted to study botany was because I wanted to know why asters and goldenrod looked so beautiful together. There are these amazing displays of this bright, chrome yellow and deep purple of New England aster, and they look stunning together. And the two plants so often intermingle rather than living apart from one another, and I wanted to know why that was. I thought that surely in the order and the harmony of the universe, there would be an explanation for why they looked so beautiful together. And I was told that that was not science, that if I was interested in beauty, I should go to art school.
Which was really demoralizing as a freshman, but I came to understand that question wasn’t going to be answered by science, that science, as a way of knowing, explicitly sets aside our emotions, our aesthetic reactions to things. We have to analyze them as if they were just pure material, and not matter and spirit together. And, yes, as it turns out, there’s a very good biophysical explanation for why those plants grow together, so it’s a matter of aesthetics and it’s a matter of ecology. Those complimentary colors of purple and gold together, being opposites on the color wheel, they’re so vivid, they actually attract far more pollinators than if those two grew apart from one another.
So each of those plants benefits by combining its beauty with the beauty of the other. And that’s a question that science can address, certainly, as well as artists. And I just think that “Why is the world so beautiful?” is a question that we all ought to be embracing.
— Robin Kimmerer, The Intelligence of All Kinds of Life (OnBeing Interview)
Color, Form, Pattern
As a photographer I find beauty in color, form, balance, and pattern. Some colors, forms, and patterns draw me more than others do. But often I find that if I look closely I find beauty in unexpected places. Sometimes I notice tiny vignettes on the ground, in the leaves, and in the air. Our world is full of earthly gifts. Sometimes those gifts nourish and sustain us in a very concrete way. But at other times they nourish and sustain us simply because they enliven and beautify our lives.
The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows.”
― Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
Flowers bloom and create seeds so that life will continue. Their beauty attracts pollinators and helps to promote the survival of those plants. In a way I see beauty as a means for life to continue to thrive and survive.
“Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart.”
― Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
Why do you think life is beautiful?
May you walk in beauty.
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