I journeyed to nature’s sanctuary seeking beauty. As I walked in silence my eyes were drawn to the mountain’s reflection upon the unfrozen part of the lake. I went seeking beauty. I went seeking to receive. Quietly and ever so gently, John O’Donohue’s words echoed in my mind and heart. I went seeking beauty. I went seeking to receive. With my hands to my heart I bowed in all four directions, downward to the earth and upward to the blue sky. With each bow I whispered, “I see you” and offered my thanks. I went seeking beauty. I went seeking to receive. I arrived to give. As in nature, so may I rise and bend with all.
“The beauty of the earth is the first beauty. Millions of years before us the earth lived in wild elegance. Landscape is the first-born of creation. Sculpted with huge patience over millennia, landscape has enormous diversity of shape, presence, and memory. There is poignancy in beholding the beauty of landscape: often it feels as though it has been waiting for centuries for the recognition and witness of the human eye. In the ninth Duino Elegy, Rilke says: Perhaps we are here in order to say: house, Bridge, fountain, gate, pitcher, fruit-tree, window… To say them more intensely than the Things themselves Ever dreamed of existing. How can we ever know the difference we make to the soul of the earth? Where the infinite stillness of the earth meets the passion of the human eye, invisible depths strain towards the mirror of the name. In the word, the earth breaks silence. It has waited a long time for the word. Concealed beneath familiarity and silence, the earth holds back and it never occurs to us to wonder how the earth sees us. Is it not possible that a place could have huge affection for those who dwell there? Perhaps your place loves having you there. It misses you when you are away and in its secret way rejoices when you return. Could it be possible that a landscape might have a deep friendship with you? That it could sense your presence and feel the care you extend towards it? Perhaps your favorite place feels proud of you. Perhaps each day our lives undertake unknown tasks on behalf of the silent mind and vast soul of nature. During its millions of years of presence perhaps it was also waiting for us, for our eyes and our words. Each of us is a secret envoi of the Earth.” ~ John O’Donohue Beauty: The Invisible Embrace
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