A Morning Without The Names of Things

The morning sun is catching the underside of the leaves on the red oak outside my window. Creating a wonderful masterpiece of light and dark greens. Looking beyond the tree, the sun is doing much the same for the land beyond. Perhaps my mind is on quilting, but it seems to me that the meadow next door is looking a bit like a huge patchwork quilt, free form, more like a crazy quilt. Pieces of color held together with stitches made of shadows and light. Its funny how just looking, really looking and describing what we see with words from another element of life turns something ordinary and often taken for granted, can transform into a thing of deep beauty, soul stirring beauty. I read the book A New Earth by Tolle, can't say as it was earth shattering reading for me, nor did it translate my life into new terms, but one concept in there that I just adore, is about how we worry about the names of things. We find a beautiful butterfly and the first thing we do, is wonder what the name of it is instead of just glorifying in the moment of discovery, or spending each moment thinking about what we are seeing, we start thinking about its name, taking away from the brief encounter, taking away how we see it, what it is to us, how it is in our mind. I think that our worry about what name something is called by, often cuts us short of finding beautiful descriptive thoughts. Small children see the world in this unclassified way and we delight in seeing the look of wonder on their faces as they mentally digest what their eyes are beholding. But, we as mature adults are so quick to start saying to them...."its a monarch butterfly, see the color pattern, they are on their way to Mexico....blah blah blah" Yes, I know our world functions with names and facts about what is in front of us, but couldn't we just examine at great length something of beauty before we have to have its name, just once in a while ? If I took away the name goat and headed outside right now to do my chores, my mind would have to look at those critters, see tiny subtleties in each one, and see them in an all together different light. I would see more of them, look for more aspects about them. Right now I am thinking of what a fantastic home school project it would have been to make my children spend one day going without the names of say flowers and writing about what they see in each flower in the yard. Imagine if we all viewed the people around us this way, but only looking for the positive. We would have to look so much deeper at them.

I choose fabric that way, the color, the feel, the way it looks laid out...couldn't care less what the designer named it. I know the value of names etc, so don't feel obligated to tell me about life in the real world and how things have to be assigned titles and names. I am just dreaming here, just trying to open my mind to be more expressive in my thinking. I might even try thinking of God in this way today, looking for more than what I already think I know !

Food for thought today for me.

Melanie painting