Simple Beauty

We stopped at the craft store today to pick up some more wick for candle dipping and to look at pink fabrics for a baby quilt. The fabrics were a delight for the eye. So many colors, so many combinations, so many textures. Almost more than my mind could soak in. Same with the yarns. Rows upon rows of color, demanding to be touched, felt, taken in by more than just vision. Some seemed as though they should smell like a baby or cotton candy.
Along other isles, fake flowers, real looking many with fake drops of dew on them. Walking down each row of the store gave me insight into how the attraction of so many items gets us into trouble. Buying more than we need. Our senses overloaded and filled with the desire to own, to bring home, to have this store ever present. Feeling as if we cannot live without this or that new thing. I bought what I needed and a couple things that had nothing to do with need, but only want. A baby is coming so want plays a bigger role in my life right now. Creating a beautiful environment for her seems important, necessary to me. But what I want for her to learn in life is to look deeper than man made things, so I need to watch myself, make certain this grandmother teaches what I believe in most deeply.
To balance what is of the earth and what is not.
Walking through the door to our home, I was greeted with the light scent of incense, burned this morning early while I sat and contemplated life, and also the air had a chill, a reminder that I lit no fire this morning in my rush to get where I needed to be in time. There was also the smell of health food, it is distinct. Herb like, but more. If you know it, you recognize it quickly. Brewers yeast, nuts, dried fruit, herbs, Braggs amino acids, and grains That sort of thing. It seems you can always tell upon entering the house of a health food nut, the house smells different, as different as say a Whole Foods market from a regular food store.
But what really struck me as I came into the house, was a pile of old threads, casually tossed on a piece of hand-woven fabric, catching the late morning sun. My old glasses that I love to wear, they make me feel connected to a time past, these glasses lay right on that same cloth. So simple and so NOT flashy like the things in the store I had just come from. The sight of them made me sigh that sort of sigh that comes from a feeling of, "yes, this is right, this is simple beauty". In a world filled with flashing pictures before our eyes on a television screen, to glossy magazines showing us all what we DON'T have yet, and store shelves calling to us, begging us to over spend, over buy, such a simple thing as old thread on a rough piece of cloth refreshes the soul. We are much like people that eat too much salt on their food and can't taste the subtle flavors anymore. We see so much flash, we miss the simple beauty in a leaf, a bird, a cloud, the sunrise, the wind in our hair, the pattern on a puddle frozen into ice.

Time now to slow down, take time away from stores, movies, television, magazines and just look around us at the simple things.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Oh so true Pat! These things will pass away.... they are just "things"...what joy we find in simplicity.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Matt 24:35,Luke 21:23,Mark 13:31
Anonymous said…
Patty I do agree it is so easy to get sucked into the spending vortex. The problem is it spits you out the other end and you feel a bit used and abused.
Your glasses are just like the ones my Grannie used to wear and hers belonged to her mother. My auntie has them now but she doesn't use them. They are nearly 150 years old.
Lucy said…
What a beautiful picture... You have a great eye for it !!
Anonymous said…
This lovely photo would look delightful framed and on the sewing room wall! Glad Melanie's health improved quickly. How exciting to have a girl coming. Will Priscilla find out what her baby is? I enjoy your posts, but was concerned about the Judgment one - has someone been saying mean things to you? I just shake my head - I really appreciate you writing your thoughts and views on life.

Rachael is home after 4 long months - I got to cuddle and feed her last night when they came over to visit - it's the coolest thing :-)
Anonymous said…
Beautiful thoughts.

Beautiful photo.

Beautiful suggestion.

Thank you for all.

'MN'
Shellie said…
It's so interesting that you posted about this Patty. Just last night I sat my children down to talk about the difference between needs and wants and that how as humans no matter how much we have, we'll always want more. Our job is to learn how to control those wants. We then watched the ABC special about the poorest kids in America so that they could get some perspective on just how fortunate they really are.
Patty said…
Hi Shellie, Emery and I watched that 20/20 too and it left me feeling so, oh I don't know exactly what word to use, but so amazed that this could be happening here in the land of plenty, but then I was angry to hear the amount spent on the drug trade per year in that area. Millions, while babies drank half and half from restaurants mixed with water in their bottles.

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