Three Kinds of Beauty
July 4th, 2011 by Rose Rosetree
Oh, how I am loving the thread that popped out of a recent profile of interior designer Barbara Barry. Because GRACE and PRIMMIE have initiated a wonderful conversation about beauty.
Especially when you’re into deeper perception, it’s important to find beauty at all levels, from surface to innermost. Don’t you think?
Energetic literacy can be appreciated best by those who are fascinated by life on earth as it shows up… wherever, however, and with every possible kind of smell attached.
So here’s a question for you. What are three of your favorite kinds of beauty in life?
Answer with a list of any length. Add more detail or less. Stir.
What do you do?
Living in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., I’m used to our strange local custom for saying hello. Generally it’s an inquiry and/or brag into “What do you do for a living?”
Wouldn’t it be loads more fun if we started our small talk by asking, “What are some of your favorite kinds of beauty in life?”
Blog-Buddies, I wouldn’t ask you to do anything that I wouldn’t be willing to do myself. So here comes my current response to the new cool question.
1. Beautiful language
Oh, I’m such an “English major.” When people use language beautifully, I simply drool with delight. Or tear up.
Wit will thrill my soul like crazy. If Oscar Wilde were still living, I would beat a path to his door. And then, if he wouldn’t let me enter and participate in the conversation, I might have to buy an ear trumpet.
Whenever people talk, that’s a beauty opportunity. Shamelessly I will check out the beauty potential, staring and listening quite freely.
Mostly the language quality isn’t great. But then sometimes I will get to talk to a person who really knows how to do language, such as C.M. Mayo, a friend of this blog whom I got to meet recently. To be together and just behold the flow of words, ah! That is a sunrise to me.
I’m also enchanted to find snappy dialogue on a written page or in a movie.
Prose or poetry, non-fiction or fiction or eavesdropping on the Washington Metro, I just adore hearing people use language… when they use language beautifully.
2. Oceans, big and small
Nature supplies many favorite kinds of beauty.
- Forests!
- Birds, especially in the morning! (Sure, they’re a landscape, to me.)
- Picnic vistas.
- Mountains (and many sizeable mountains live quite near me)
- Desert decorated with rocks
But, for sure, my favorite is OCEAN. Wild, om-ing, ever fresh, gloriously fragrant ocean.
Bring on an ocean! The bigger, the better.
By ”an ocean,” I mean that I love smaller bodies of water as well, because to me they are scaled-down versions of ocean. And beach.
Puddles on the street may be a bit small, perhaps. A lake will do fine, however, like that big one in Seattle. (So far, I have done four session and teaching tours there, staying with Jean, a generous friend whose home overlooks Puget Sound.)
Or I think of hiking down to a Great Lake with my oldest friend Eda; the last time we visited where she lives in Chicago, we went twice. Waterfront park by a great lake, plus talking heart-to-heart, plus being with someone who sees like an artist, oh, yum!
Over at the earlier conversation about beauty, PRIMMIE made comments about being visual. How the very idea made me laugh. Because recently I was talking to Gladys, a friend with remarkable synesthesia. Gladys grew up near a Great Lake. As a girl she loved how it was so immense that she couldn’t see the opposite shore. “I wonder what an ocean would look like,” she would think.
When Gladys finally saw a proper ocean, it was love at first sight. But disappointment also. Because this water-loving woman didn’t see a whole lot of visual difference between true ocean and Great Lake.
As for me, Gladys’ story absolutely cracked me up. Because, as I told her, never, not once, in all of this life, have I ever had a thought that went, “I wonder what xyz looks like.”
Which is why nothing visual makes my top three beauty list, that’s for sure.
3. Music
Bring on the ear-gasms! How I love auditory beauty.
Vocal music is my fave, Rennaissance music when I can get it. James Taylor will certainly do. Many opera singers. For a highlight of this July fourth, I have a date to listen to the latest Weird Al Yankovic CD with my family, AL-pocalypse. (My spelling.)
For a laugh, check out Weird Al’s YouTube parody of Lady Gaga.
Many kinds of music thrill my soul, however. Yesterday I was watching a PBS documentary about conductor James Levine, Tivoed once upon a time and doled out to myself for small inspirational doses.
Perfect for when I need a good cry! The absolute yumminess of that man.
I do especially enjoy watching conductors, like him or (of course) Gustavo Dudamel. Frantically happy to eavesdrop and watch, sometimes I’ll feel like a dog wagging her tail, only I have about 20 tails flapping up and down all at once.
If I weren’t so busy with the tail-wagging, I might be tempted to stop and do a bit of Skilled Empath Merge or aura reading. You know, read a chakra databank or two. But nooooooooooo. I get so involved as a human, I don’t even want to do face reading.
Right there on the surface, all that beauty! Which is beyond amazing to me, how it could all be packaged and delivered up, hot and tasty, for the audience.
Paying attention, splot!, right on the surface, there is such an ocean-like, amazing experience when a conductor like James Levine has the music flow through him, including his intellect and ears and fingers. Then this particular conductor, when shown in the documentary (in contrast to a concert), will use words to communicate what the singer or orchestra member needs to change!
Actual words of great precision and wit! Words, my fave!
If only this kind of documentary could be given a bit of special effect, so that Maestro Levine could seem to be rising out of the ocean. Like Sandro Botticelli’s famous painting at the top of this post, sometimes called “The Birth of Venus” but known to the less reverent as “Venus served on a clamshell.”
Wouldn’t that be the ultimate, oboy! Ocean plus music plus words. (And, stopping at Beauty Thrill #3, I won’t even get started on beauteous smells….)
Blog-Buddies, this could be a long conversation. I can’t wait to read about your faves.
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What a lovely idea for a post!
My Three Things (although there are hundreds really)
Colour. I feel colour and seem to taste it as well; it absolutely thrills me. It’s delicious and sexy and wonderful.
The feel of things. I need to feel something when it’s beautiful. I need to know it through touch.
Voices, especially when singing or when people are being honest. People telling the truth and revealing themselves is so beautiful. Language amazes me.
I’m also really connected to taste and smell right now, which is completely new for me. I’m pregnant and everything tastes extraordinary and my sense of smell is heightened. These are new experiences of beauty and it’s interesting to have them for the first time really.
PRIMMIE, thank you for being the first one to share.
You know, being pregnant, the soul of your child hangs out within your aura a lot — sees through your eyes and shares all your experiences and senses.
So when that baby is born, expect a person with keener senses of taste and smell compared to yours. (Especially for the first few years, anyway.)
When I was pregnant, my vision improved. So did my comfort when driving a car.
Matt is now 20. Unlike me, he has never needed glasses. And he relishes driving.
Did you know? Optometrists don’t like to prescribe new glasses for a woman who is pregnant because of the vision changes. I guess to a scientist these changes are considered “random.” Ha!
Ooh what a lovely idea!
For me, beauty is made up of very individual moments. And something that delights me one day is “just there” the next.
So I’ll do my top three from today
1. We went to a zoo and I spent half an hour sitting right next to a sleeping tiger with just mesh wire between us. The colours and individual hairs on its coat were entrancing: little faint spots and fierce stripes; there was a little nick in its ear, and it smelt beautiful.
2. Being here now, outside with birds and my fountain splashing and a slightly chilly wind is pure delight, or a refocusing of pure delight, or something.
3. My son bought a polystyrene glider and watching it fly through the air and land with a skip was mesmerising.
What a gorgeously centering idea! Thank you, Rose
Amanda
Lovely idea! Thanks for the opportunity, Rose.
*Nature:
The vastness of the ocean — looking at it gives me bliss. (Not getting in it, though; I don’t even like getting wet unless it’s really hot).
And mountains – I’m surrounded by them now – oh the bliss to look at them while hiking! And trees and flowers – can’t get enough of them!
*Choral Music
Harmony of voices; violin and cello too; crystal bowls, sounds of water….
*Colors
Especially blues and greens. Yellow also gives me joy. Driving by a truckload of lemons always gives me a joyful feeling.
What a “beautiful” idea, Rose!
I’m so happy that others are interested in talking about this since I’ve been realizing in recent months just how important it is to me.
Before I share what’s beautiful to me, I’ll share a thought-provoking quote from the book I mentioned in the other post. [Spacing added by Rose, Blog editor, for ease in reading.]
“In a sense, all the contemporary crises can be reduced to a crisis about the nature of beauty.
“This perspective offers us new possibilities. In parched terrains new wells are to be discovered.
“When we address difficulty in terms of the call to beauty, new invitations come alive. Perhaps, for the first time, we gain a clear view of how much ugliness we endure and allow.
“The media generate relentless images of mediocrity and ugliness in talk-shows, tapestries of smothered language and frenetic gratification. The media are becoming the global mirror and these shows tend to enshrine the ugly as the normal standard.
“Beauty is mostly forgotten and made to seem naive and romantic.
“The blindness of property development creates rooms, buildings and suburbs which lack grace and mystery. Socially, this influences the atmosphere in the workplace, the schoolroom, the boardroom and the community.
“It also results in such degradation of the environment that we are turning more and more of our beautiful earth into a wasteland. Much of the stress and emptiness that haunts us can be traced back to our lack of attention to beauty.
“Internally, the mind becomes coarse and dull if it remains unvisited by images and thoughts which hold the radiance of beauty.”
Thoughts?
As for what’s especially beautiful to me …..
Nature
The ocean! San Francisco Bay, with its views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the contrast of the water and the surrounding hills. Simply stunning.
I grew up in Michigan, where you can drive something like 3 or 4 miles in any direction and see a lake. I love bodies of water. The reflection on a still body of water, the waves crashing on the ocean.
Forests
Lately I spend as much time as I can in the huge park near my home. There are wonderful trails through the trees that let me feel completely surrounded by a cocoon of nature.
I love the contrast of the textures of the trees, the bark, the leaves, the colors. It’s every sense experience about it that I love, really.
Light
There is one neighborhood in San Francisco, the Marina, which has the most captivating light. The quality of it strikes me every time I’m there. I love good interior design that includes lots of natural light and well-designed lighting for after sunset. Great lighting creates beautiful ambience.
Voices
Lately I work with some people who have worked for years on TV and/or radio. It’s a delight to listen to the tones of their golden voices. There’s something soothing and comforting about listening to a beautiful voice. I’ve been aware of the changes in my own voice over the years as I’ve grown and settled down in various ways. And I enjoy bringing this out in my students.
I also love the quality of voice when people are being authentic.
Architecture/Interior Design
I love a harmonious design, especially art deco. The mix of shapes, textures, color, form, all of it. Visuals!
Harmony
There’s something about harmony in general that is simply beautiful to me. Whether in fashion, art, product design, language, social interaction, harmony is beautiful and soothing to me. I think that this is one reason I so enjoy working with my Asian students. Harmony is valued much more in Asian cultures than in the U.S.
I love seeing people who have a sense of harmony with themselves in terms of understanding, no matter the age, size, weight, etc., what looks good on them and will bring out their best features. I love great “Make-over” shows and articles that are kind-hearted in spirit, as in ‘How can we bring out the best in you?”
I look forward to hearing from others!
Hi, Rose. I love this idea!
Fashion: Both the art and as a form of individual self-expression and creativity. One of my favorite blogs is The Sartorialist by Scott Schulman – he photographs ordinary people on the street and what they wear.
Art: I love spending a day at the museum. One of my favorites is the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC. It’s not just the artwork itself, but the way it is presented, curated, displayed, presented, captioned….
Architecture and Interior Design: Yes, I am a sucker for all those design and decorating magazines: Dwell, Metropolitan Home (when it was being published), etc. The way people organize the space around them to bring Form and Function together is beautiful and fascinating to me.
Music: I am not a professional musician, but I really enjoy music of all genres. Listening to the radio for a few minutes each day is a joy of mine.
Sequoia trees: I love nature and the ocean, as other bloggers have shared, but I can still viscerally remember being in Sequoia National Forest. Wow, I felt like the wisdom of the trees was speaking to me and holding a space for me. To know that these ancient trees were here before me and continue on long after me. It was both awe-inspiring and humbling.
Humor: Especially witty humor!
Intelligence: It was hard for me to list this one because I was afraid it would make me sound like a snob. But there is just about nothing more interesting to me than hearing someone intelligent share their thoughts – and it really doesn’t matter what the subject is.
Language and Reading: I, too, am a huge fan of beautiful language, especially beautifully written language!
It has always been amazing to me that the written word has so much power. I remember as a child thinking, How is it that words on a page can bring me to howls of laughter? And tears? Queue in Charlotte’s Web, The Velveteen Rabbit, Watership Down, and other stories….
It doesn’t surprise me that words have started revolutions – and the first thing dictators attempt to do when trying to consolidate their power is burn books and make their people illiterate. I have always felt that writers of all stripes – novelists, journalists, bloggers, and others – hold an important role in our society.
Compassion and Kindness: Sharon Salzberg once joked in a lecture she gave that some people think kindness is something you do when you can’t do anything else. But the more I live, the more I think kindness is one of the most important gifts we can offer, compassion a salve in the most trying circumstances. So bring on lovingkindness – a denomination-free practice!
As I’m in the mountains surrounded by greens of every imaginable lush shade, especially with all the rain we’ve had, I’m very appreciative of all the life around me.
I really enjoy the sound of birds, especially mourning doves. In fact, I enjoy all the sounds as you hike in the woods, and living in the Catskills there are plenty of woods right out my back door.
I like texture and color. I can find something as simple as a lightly textured plastic tube of face wash intriguing and aesthetically pleasing.
As a young mother I was many times transfixed by the sound of my child’s breath as he slept. Likewise, I also felt a kind of intense peace as I held my child close and inhaled the scent of his downy hair. In my memory there is no fragrance as pleasing, or touching, as your newly bathed child.
WOW, ELAINE, ANITA, GRACE W., BRENDA, AMANDA — here I thought I knew each of you quite well and yet these lists have been revelations.
Talk about beautiful!
Keep ‘em coming, Blog-Buddies. Really, is anything we’ve ever done here more fun than this?
(And in my role of teacher of Deeper Perception, it all makes such sense related to those aura reading and empath gifts described in my various books.)
Thank you, ladies!
Hearing the human voice sing with heartfelt/emotional spiritual connection.
Seeing water: immense oceans, secluded cays, ensconced rivers, waterfalls…
The flame in a single candle.
The feeling of being touched by people. Massages, making love, holding my baby to my chest. Feeling water and the warmth of the sun on my face in the Spring time is beautiful. Ahh….
Rose, that’s very interesting about a woman’s senses changing as she’s pregnant and it having to do with the baby.
I’m going through a lot of change currently, and the world does seem very different. I’m expecting twins so I think that might explain why the experience is so radical.
GRACE, that quote is lovely. Our own home-grown Prince Charles has written a book, ‘Harmony’, which makes the same argument that beauty creates harmony, health and wellbeing and that these principles should inform our community decisions.
Your quote reminded me of his book, which I found very inspiring. He traces the principles of architectural, musical and mathematical beauty back to the patterns found in Nature and also makes a lovely argument for the principles of simplicity in medicine and agriculture.
It’s such a far-reaching and, yes, beautiful way to view human life. I’m happy there are people thinking this way.
Amanda
I do love this thread!
AMANDA, I am very jealous that you were so close to a sleeping tiger; that sounds wonderful.
Hi Rose, I recently discovered – and LOVE – your blog, I suscribed to read all the newsletter archives, too.
Is there any way to read the recent newsletters I missed, such as the Stephanie Meyer one?
Three types of my fave beauty:
Lake at the base of mountains
Watching someone who loves dancing, dance.
Thanks again for your thought-provoking words!
My top three would have to be:
Music – much music is beyond beautiful to me, something in certain people’s voices also.
Light - rainbows and sunshine and moonlight and starlight, sunsets, moonrise, the glow in some people’s eyes and faces.
Love – a mother cuddling her newborn baby, an elderly couple holding hands, a hug from a special friend, a heartfelt “I love you.”
LIL, how lovely to hear from you. Welcome to this informal community of Blog-Buddies.
Unfortunately it is not practical at this time to hunt down previous newsletters. Sorry!
Still I just finished the one for July today, and it will be formatted and sent out soon.
Meanwhile, what is that third type of fave beauty? We’re all in suspense!
AMANDA, I will have to look up Prince Charles’ book. I wonder if he specifically mentioned the principles of sacred geometry. What you’re describing sounds very much along those lines. Are you familiar with this?
I’d been curious about sacred geometry and not well informed, so I took a class in it last year.
Wow! What a fascinating topic! To see and understand the patterns and proportions that are found throughout nature, life, the world, the major religions, cells, the planets….simply stunning.
This is a beautiful thread, Rose. Very heartwarming, too, to know that there are so many of us who appreciate beauty as much as I do. And the descriptions are delightful. Very moving and poetic.
I’ve discovered a new toy. A student shared with me an iPhone app called “Instagram,” which allows you to share photos taken on your iPhone camera, sort of like Flickr. But there is this cool series of filters you can apply to your little iPhone photo that turn it into a professional looking work of art.
What fun it is to snap little scenes of beauty in my day! And to use technology as a tool for inspiration.
Any iPhone users out there?
Hello, GRACE
Yes, he touches on Plato and Pythagoras and there’s a section on how the Fibonacci sequence is mirrored in beautiful buildings. It’s a very heartfelt and personal book and that comes through.
I did enjoy reading it and I like how he practices what he preaches: He has his own brand of organic produce on the supermarket shelves here!
Amanda
Hi, PRIMMIE
Oh it was a delight, just watching her breathe and twitch in her sleep: I sat right next to the mesh and we were only a few inches apart.
It was in the best zoo I ever found: a tiny place near the Norfolk coast where the animals have character and behaviour and show that they’re happy and alive.
Something special and lovely always happens when I go there, like the sleeping tiger or fighting snow leopards or the gibbon who plays with visitors, the animals are all so comfortable and happy – and I like how non-politically-correct the zoo owners are: There’s a picture up next to the crocodilians of an alligator with an arm in its mouth and a later picture of the arm’s owner after having it sewn back on.
You can imagine how gloriously gruesome that is for the children!
Amanda
Lil, I have the twilight issue and can send you it. I’m at least a little internet savvy so I’m going to be putting DOT for .
amy dot o dot rourke dot aor @ gmail dot com
Pop me an email and I’ll send it to you.
That should prevent most scam bots.
My favourite types of beauty are:
Words – I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and John Wyndham. Their books that I love: One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Day of the Triffids, respectively, can evoke such a setting in my mind that I don’t want the book to finish again.
Plays, actresses nailing the part, inhabiting a role, being inspiring always touches me. Not so much films and television, generally the plays at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. And usually Oscar Wilde – I’ve seen “The Importance of Being Earnest” three times, one with the female characters played by men in drag.
Fashion I love the use of textures, silhouettes, colours, shapes. While I don’t buy fashion magazines, and am currently a student so I don’t do big purchases at the minute, I love looking at people’s blogs where they make such an effort developing their style.
My favourite bloggers are Susie Bubble, and Gala Darling (who linked to Rose’s post on Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” in one of her posts).
AMY, thank you for your help given in Comment 20. Originally I thought to ask but then feared imposing on you’all.
AMY, thanks again. Not just for contributing but for letting me know about Gala Darling’s link.
If you’re part of that community, please thank Gala Darling and invite her to submit candidates for the Enlightenment Life List, or participate here in any other ways.
What a wonderful, inspiring, heart-felt and ‘beautiful’ post today, Rose! I LOVE this!
My favorite three include:
*Music*
I have often said if I had the choice between going blind or going deaf I would without question choose going blind. I would find it very difficult to live without music.
The feeling I get, I call this “resonance,” within myself when I listen to a particular piece of music that moves me… is how I first truly understood that God exists. I literally feel like I’m vibrating! I am often moved to tears by a great song/movement of music, by the textures within the music, and by the melody!
I love all different forms of music, even modern music, but Classical is my favorite. Sheer joy.
*Smell*
I have always had an extremely sensitive sniffer… smells bring back memories, vividly, for me. I often find myself smelling different items of clothing of mine after washing. I LOVE the smell of clean clothes.
I always thought that this was a weird habit of mine but I have just realized that I do it as inspiration!
I’m moved by the beauty in smells! There is nothing like the smell of the desert just after it has rained (good thing I live in one
. SO BEAUTIFUL.
Perfumes, the smell of a man, coffee, gasoline, wet leaves… very beautiful. Rose, I’m thinking this may be one of the gifts I need to use for Aura Reading!
*Connection to People*
I am moved by the beauty in helping someone understand something. I have taught IT-related subjects to ordinary people all over the country in a past job, and I will never forget the feeling I got (much like listening to beautiful music) when I connected with someone to help him or her understand how to use our program. It was lovely.
Thank you, again, for this most inspiring post, Rose!
So, HEATHER, you think this big gift for gustatory giftedness just might come in handy for aura reading? You think?
I’m also so impressed that you placed “the smell of a man” ahead of gasoline and wet leaves, though after perfume.
I’m inspired by you and your beauty pathways, HEATHER. You put them so beautifully. (And also the first two on your list are a lot like mine.)
Great post!
My top three things of beauty that I experience/appreciate at least several times a week are:
Feet:
I used to have “beautiful” feet, but after three marathons and a half marathon, hiking adventures, and various types of physical training, my feet are now considered “ugly”.
However, I think they’re gorgeous because of what they’ve accomplished and how much they have helped me evolve. I tell friends how gorgeous their feet are when they try to hide them, and how much I respect people who have “ugly” feet.
A Good Butt-Shaking Beat:
Dancing to a great beat/music is my soul thrill. It better have a beat I can shake it too! For a pesron like me who thinks too much, a good beat is very grounding. My body and I become best friends again. Together we throw our own party that people want to join, and get lost in the physical world.
Who needs drugs when you’ve got a good beat?
Nature at Night:
Walking at night alone or with friends through Washington D.C. neighborhoods (especially Georgetown) is amazing. Nature just gives a huge sigh of relief at dusk, and at night the energy of the trees become mystical and enchanting.
HEATHER, I’m the same way with smells. If I catch a whiff of Gitanes cigarettes, I’m immediately transported to France.
I’ve stopped wearing certain perfumes at various points over the years as relationships from those eras waned. Didn’t want to be reminded….
The smells of the forest… the ocean…
And back to Paris, there’s a shop somewhere near work (I think it’s a Subway, of all things) that has a bread-baking smell that takes me right to Paris. Reminds me of croissants.
AMANDA: I forgot all about his books!
I read “A Vision of Britain: A Personal View of Architecture” back in 2009. It seemed like he was disapproving of the modern architechture that had flooded London post-WWII (mostly 1960s).
I guess he wasn’t a big fan of Mod/post-modern style. It’s a bit more opinionated than “Harmony”, but he makes some really good points. Cheers!
What a kind gesture, AMY.
I am touched (and will send an email over). And thank you Rose for responding, hope you get to see this.
Oops, forgot to mention the third beauty again
People’s eyes and cats’ eyes- shape, colour, everything.
Love this topic of beauty…
Hard to narrow it to three, so will just name a few current faves:
smells– rose, different flower scents, food seasonings–curry, cinnamon, vanilla, lavendar, geranium, bergamont
plants–the shapes, colors, textures, the way they grow and change over time
organization–love an organized room! an orderly harmonious space with beautiful natural light, natural materials–stone, wood etc…– the kind of organization that feels spacious
heartfelt, vulnerable communication between 2 (or more) people willing to trust each other and reach out, where it results in a closer relationship.
I also think it’s beautiful to be willing and open to learning new things, ideas, meeting people etc…
Due to being busy, it’s been a long time since reading some of your posts. I miss my more active reading days… It has been a treat to read this one! : )
LISA, it’s a treat to have your share here!
BRIDGET, just when I think I knew you quite well, here come new surprises.
Makes total sense, and these are totally beauties.
After reading Rose’s Comment #2, my mom and I talked about what her pregnancy with me was like compared to her regular life and her pregnancies with my siblings. It’s really fascinating!!
With me, she had much stronger food cravings and gained more weight than with her other two pregnancies. She can still feel those SOUL SHAKING cravings for ribs!
That brings me to one of my favorite kinds of beauty – taste! I can’t believe none of you have mentioned it, you weirdos!!
When I bring different energies into my aura, I’ve noticed they very often have a strong flavor. Just yesterday, I ended up with the most amazzzzzzing mmmm fresh baked chocolate cake in my Belly Chakra! It was a little weird, yes, but amazing.
During her pregnancy with me, my mom was also very determined to continue going to her night shift job working in the psych. unit with children who were mostly all into satanism. That is sort of hilarious to me, as I can imagine myself in her belly prodding her to go to her absolutely fascinating job, so that I can get my life started already!
Also on my list,
Smell (though I am also aware of great ugliness in this area of life!)
Paintings, oil paintings especially. I like to stare at them and let my eyes trip over the brush strokes, feel the place in the painting, take a trip on color.
It’s easy to understand painters through their work, to see what they saw and wanted to see, what they felt, and what they knew all at once in an image.
Flowers, their freshness, their inherent beauty, their meaning in God’s eyes.
I think they each have a frequency and personality sort of like a color or a divine being does, and they can bless you with their presence. I put these in my aura a lot too!! So even if I can’t keep any alive in real life, I can carry them with me.
Touch, of satin, my hair brushing my shoulders, etc.
COL, JORDAN. (That’s chuckle out loud, related to your Comment 34.)
Fascinating to hear the results of your interviewing your mother!
If any of you other Blog-Buddies have the sort of relationship with a mother where you could ask about changes during pregnancy, please do it. Then tell us!
Knowing you as I do, JORDAN, what happened to your mother was so extremely perfect.
Three kinds of beauty that I find especially beautiful.
Emotions – They give our lives here on Earth a unique flavor. So often a very misunderstood thing. I have seen so many failed attempts at making sense of emotions. All emotions are beautiful- sorrow, lust, rage, love. I admire people who can display their emotions unabashed, with just the right outlet. My favorite music and art is the kind wrought from intense emotions.
I don’t particularly appreciate muted emotions or the perceived need to tame or ignore them. My favorite kind are the wild and disorderly kind. Yet I understand the societal necessity of controlling them so we don’t go around killing each other.
The Planets and Stars - The night sky full of stars and vast deep space is always soul-stirring for me. Telescope pictures of deep space– Wow! My breath always catches in my throat. I have an overwhelming sense of awe.
Intelligence – The things that humans have created, thanks to a higher intellect also amaze me. Airplanes and the Internet–Wow! Thanks to our intelligence, we can enjoy deeper understanding. That is a beautiful thing. And intelligence makes a beautiful combination with emotions. What strange animals humans are.
I forgot another one that is super important and very beautiful to me. It is a kind of beauty that I’ve only recently began to notice and if it weren’t for this post, I might not have given it the thought to realize that it is something I find beautiful.
Self Expression – The genuine kind. Without STUFF.
Checking out Enlightened people from Rose’s list, I’ve become more sensitive to this kind of awe-inspiring thing.
AMANDA, I must seek out that zoo! To be so close to such incredible animals sounds amazing.
JORDAN, that’s funny about your mother craving ribs so much when she was pregnant with you. My husband is very connected to his appetite and I’m sure my twins take after him in that respect. Never before has he asked me what I want to eat and I’ve given him a precise menu with no hesitation. And I don’t usually spring out of bed at 7 on a Saturday to make breakfast with fresh strawberries and raspberries and honey and Greek yogurt and crushed nuts “just so.”
Right now I could tell you exactly what was in my fridge and what meals I can make from it all. This is all new and bizarre to me. Usually I am the kind of person who looks up from work at around 1ish and thinks “oh yeah, I should eat”.
It’s been very positive for my marriage actually as my husband has never understood how food has been something I’ve enjoyed but not been driven by. Now I understand his connection to appetite in a way I never did before.
Pregnancy is bizarre, frankly, PRIMROSE. Enjoy it!
And congratulations on your efficiency, having twins.
Aw, PRIMMIE, congrats on the twins.
Don’t be surprised if one or both of your babies comes out of the womb already looking for food! My mom has laughed many times over the years remembering how strong my rooting reflex was. I guess I was looking around for her boob as soon as I opened my eyes. I think the doctor even commented on it. Ha.
I used to think people like you, PRIMMIE, people who could just forget about food, were nuts, absolutely nuts, alien life forms! And I wished I was one of them!
But I am coming to appreciate my sensuality and the immense degree of pleasure I get from physical things. It can be so, so nice!
When my mom and I had our recent discussion and she recalled her food cravings, she looked at me with wide eyes and said, “That’s YOU?? You feel like that all the time???” So I think she understands me better now, too.
She also, during this discussion, raised her hand and asked permission to tell me about another of her sensual appetites which was running very high at this time… I’ll let you guess what that was. I’m not sure if these two go hand in hand, but maybe.
Face reading moment — would you say you have small earlobes, Primmie?
Oooh, Ashley S., The Stars and Planets! That’s a great one.
I once spent a few weeks on a sailboat in the Caribbean sea. We slept outside on deck most nights. The stars were always beautiful, but I remember one night in particular when they were so vast that couldn’t get a handle on what I was seeing. It was probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
I think it’s like that out in the middle of the desert too, but I haven’t done that yet.
Ah, JORDAN, beware trying to reconstruct or imagine a person’s physical face data.
As you get into the excitement of face reading, is this tempting to do? Sure. But never a good idea. Not only does it turn the noble art of reading faces for character into a kind of guessing game — unintentionally, for sure, but….
When you are sophisticated as a physiognomist, JORDAN (Which I just know you can be!) and can do full hour-long face readings, you will understand better why.
Layers of data mix and match on a face. There could be something about earlobes related to how a person interacts with reality, but also priority areas and eyebrow characteristics and chin characteristics and jaw characteristics etc.
And then, for an aura reader like you, JORDAN, there is your ability to go in to read any chakra databanks you like of related interest.
The truly elegant way to make sense out of face reading data and its relationship to different aspects of life that fascinate you.
Ah, gotcha Rose. I didn’t really think it was that simple, I just wonnnndered. Sometimes I just want to know what the heck all the Blog-Buddies look like!! But I don’t want to cheapen the face reading process, don’t mean to do that
Face reading is kind of difficult for me, but I’m slowwwly getting better.
ROSE, thank you! I haven’t thought having twins was very efficient of me, but now I’m having them it feels absolutely right. I feel very very blessed.
Jordan, I can understand your thinking people like me are aliens. I’ve felt the same way about people who’ve told me delightedly that they ate a great cheesecake for lunch. I’ve always thought “And so what?”
Foodie conversations have been the most boring thing ever to me. My mother-in-law can remember every meal she’s ever eaten, and over the years I’ve known her she has tried to engage me in conversations about apple pie and chocolate and cake and I’ve just felt puzzled… and about as engaged as when people go on about the weather.
Not now though! I think my children are going to be loving those food talks.
JORDAN, I can understand your thinking people like me are aliens. I’ve felt the same way about people who’ve told me delightedly that they ate a great cheesecake for lunch. I’ve always thought “And so what?”
Foodie conversations have been the most boring thing ever to me. My mother-in-law can remember every meal she’s ever eaten, and over the years I’ve known her she has tried to engage me in conversations about apple pie and chocolate and cake and I’ve just felt puzzled… and about as engaged as when people go on about the weather.
Not now though! I think my children are going to be loving those food talks.
JORDAN, no offense taken. And thank you for the superb idea that has just become a blog post for today. Our new photo gallery, hooray!
http://www.rose-rosetree.com/blog/2011/07/10/curious-how-different-blog-buddies-look/
PRIMMIE, this is really so funny to me. I’m don’t think I talk about food very often; plus I can’t stand to bore people, it makes me feel itchy. So if someone didn’t like my talking about food, I probably wouldn’t go on.
I’ve tended to think when I said something about enjoying food in the past and someone looked at me like an alien, that they were judging me and thinking I was fat and maybe I shouldn’t be enjoying food so much. Now, I’m not really very fat, but history has given me a reason to believe that people might be thinking this kind of crap about me. And you know, girls are supposed to subsist on air, or something like that.
Anyway, maybe they were just thinking I was weird ’cause they didn’t get it. I think this was probably true in some cases when I took it personally instead of seeing that they just weren’t interested. I can actually think of one specific case where I think this happened and I instead took the “personal offense” route in my mind.
Either way, I think there can be a lot of judgment around food, what you eat and what other people eat and how they eat it, so I’m glad we’ve had this discussion.
I shamelessly admit to loving following the adventures of the Duke and Duchess on their North American trip this past week or so.
I was struck by how beautiful Kate looked at the elegant BAFTA event in LA last night. She really was radiant and just very naturally beautiful. Her presence and look struck me as quite a contrast to the posed photo opps by the celebrities who attended.
So often celebrities look so fake and posed, like they’re trying too hard. I think that Kate really did outshine them all. And clearly without trying too hard.
Beautiful!
JORDAN, it is really interesting to think about this. Thank you.
I have a friend who is a fabulous cook and so is her mother. My friend grew up having an incredible dialogue about food.
She described me as a food orphan because I didn’t have that with my mother. She really hit the nail on the head saying that to me, because my mother’s mother died very young and my mother has no family recipes, no favourite family meals, no food history at all. I think that loss had led to all of my family losing some pleasure in food.
I think being pregnant and connecting so strongly with taste is healing some of that food wound. (Yep, strange phrase but I can’t think of another.) I hope I always have this pleasure in taste, it is quite wonderful.
Funny and interesting… I’ve been out with the flu and it’s just amazing how much that changes your perspective (as any pain or illness does). I have not been seeing a lick of beauty! I’m just starting to get into the rhythm of things again, and this post is a perfect springboard (and much appreciated!).
A beauty that I’m utterly enthralled by these days is young children playing. When my young son plays with the older neighbor girl it’s just amazing; they are both very joyous and carefree individuals. I love their free flowing, non-stop creativity.
I love the kind of joy that playful kids bring. Generally speaking, I feel more at ease around kids, you’d think I’d become a mother at a young age or work with kids, but I don’t/didn’t.
I’m also keenly interested in, and see beauty in, a kind of wabi sabi around the house. I don’t see beauty in conventional harmony. Recently I was captivated by the shadow of a long dead flower arrangement, and then the tumbling heap of library books.
Outdoors, I can tease out the most beautiful images in my surroundings. The way a vine spirals and transforms, the fallen tree and the new shapes it forms, the intersecting lights and shadows…
I’ve actually long since given up on photographing these scenes (for the most part), for two reasons: The photo never did it justice, and I was removing myself from the experience, and not giving myself up to it and absorbing it. I ended up having to rely on the photo to recreate my experience, which bothered me.
Speaking of photography. Beauty in all sorts of painting, prints and drawings too. I get lost not only in the whole image, but also find immense pleasure in the teeniest details and techniques (making it or looking at someone else’s work).
I’m also one of those that gets great joy from smells: Flowers, leaves, dirt, wood, pines, rain, snow (Yes, those crisp snow fallen days have a specific scent), water, moisture, burning wood… all outdoorsy things.
Also, a great sense of beauty in my life these days is found in touches from my son or husband. Or when my kid sits against me and we listen for birds, zoning out to the rest of the world. Solitude.