Congratulations! You have done the heavy intellectual lifting and are ready for Part II: Walking in beauty. We begin with living amid the beauties of nature.
During the month of August this blog will present a series that guides you into a better appreciation through posts on the following topics.
- The psychology of vitality.
- Barbara Fredrickson and the psychology of positive emotion.
- The secret of John Muir’s full and unified aesthetic perception of Yosemite and wilderness generally.
- The scope of empathy.
- Beauty as the harmony of contrasts.
- Beauty as divine.
Those who wish to take this opportunity to transform their experience in this area will put into practice—and adjust to your own way of thinking—the thoughts you find worthy. Then comment on what you discover through your practice, supported by our expanding community.
Please savor . . . and get active . . . and pass the word.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Coming_attraction.jpg
About seven years ago my partner and I purchased nine acres of land on a gravel road about three miles outside of the small, rural town of Alsea (pop. 164) in the Coast Range of Oregon. It had an abandoned cow pasture of about 4.5 acres and came with an acre of pond and surrounds, and about 3.5 acres of forest. There was nothing on the property except three 120’ Douglas firs set about in the pasture.
After much effort and not a few resources we now have a wonderful home with gardens, orchard, berry patch, raised beds, mower barn, shed, chicken coop and a guest house. And our entry into ‘farming’ has us as USDA certified organic grass hay farmers and as a licensed Oregon Domestic Kitchen, which allows us to sell our jams to John Boy’s Mercantile, in town.
The property is on a slope and the manufactured house is set so the front faces east, the back faces west and a wide, covered porch faces north toward the pond. There are wonderful ridge lines of trees that offer a great stage for sunrises and sunsets. A wall of tall fir and oak and newly planted maples line the far side of the pond and frame it nicely.
The house is surrounded by wide decks and plenty of places to sit and look. From the porch we can watch the Canadian geese in their annual peregrinations, the great blue herons, kingfishers and osprey fish for the blue gill in the pond as well as the deer taking advantage of the old, golden delicious apple tree that sits between the firs and the water line; it was discovered and pretty much devastated by a bear last year, however apple trees have a strong will to survive and it has come back nicely this year – sans pommes, unfortunately.
And I should say something about the quiet. One hears only the wind and bird song.
And then there are the stars at night. When we have guests, after dinner it is ritual to wrap up in warm Mexican blankets and take comfort in the lounges on the wide, west deck, stare up at the sky – and watch. The rules are simple: sightings of planes and satellites have to be witnessed to be counted, but meteors are accepted on one’s word. If perchance the international space station is in orbit over the house, delight is taken in declaring when and where it will rise and set. It is quite bright against a moonless sky.
The names of stars, constellations and asterisms (the Summer Triangle) are learned and taught. The one who sees the first star of the night is congratulated on fine eyesight and we all share the wonder at watching the panoply of twinkling lights emerge into the night sky. The locations of planets are identified, too.
We are surrounded by beauty and our experience and appreciation of it is set out amidst the peace and quiet that encompasses us.
As I look about me, especially at sunset, I am often moved from deep appreciation to thanksgiving to a humbling and undeveloped state of worship. I shake my head in amazement at it all – the fact of beauty, the fact of my experience of it and the fact of ‘me’. One day I will feel and know myself to be more apart of it all – more related to our Father – and my experience of worship will be deepened and made more satisfying thereby.
As I am recently retired, there have been moments of reflection that included questions of value and relevance in my new life. And after some deep pondering, I came up with my new career as a “pasture artist” in that I began with a blank canvass – the pasture – and created a place that is now called Sweeney Pond Farms. It is my experience of ‘artistic living’. We call Sweeney Pond Farms a refuge for your soul.
Exquisite, Michael: your area in Oregon, your achievement with the land, your appreciation with friends, and your description.
One of the things about a pioneering conversation such as this is (in some ways) is that new discoveries constantly arise. You have given voice to an added essential of natural beauty that John Muir (to be introduced tomorrow morning) does not include: the beauty of the history of the (non-exploitative) human relation with nature. You have mentioned yourself as a part of nature–obvious enough, yet easy to overlook for one persons who, in a way, transcend nature in worship.
And your generous reflection goes so far as to remind me of one of the essential debates in aesthetics and my attempted contribution to that debate: Is beauty a quality of what we perceive or merely “in the eye of the beholder”? I say both. The Creator’s gift of beauty is sewn into the creation and also into our own inner capacity for response.
Dearest brother Jeff,
Your kind and generous words delight my soul.
You write, “Is beauty a quality of what we perceive or [is it] merely “in the eye of the beholder”? I say both. The Creator’s gift of beauty is sewn into the creation and also into our own inner capacity for response.” I think you are spot on.
Beauty is one aspect of Divinity that we can comprehend, experience as mortals. What a great design! One can forget that the experiences of truth, beauty and goodness are our initiations into experiencing God. The love of our Father is introduced to many of us through the perception of the beauty in the world around us. And it’s just the beginning. How blessed we are.
Michael
Leap-frog! You write, “The experiences of truth, beauty, and goodness are our initiations into experiencing God.” Yes!
These values are the divine outreach from eternity into time. But, as you note, we can forget. Some shadow falls across our thinking, feeling, and doing; and we momentarily lose the spiritual center of gravity. The language of values can seem ambiguous–indifferently open to either secular or religious interpretations. So the concepts are contested.
A friend of mine from the University of California in Berkeley told of a trip to St. Petersburg where he spoke with enthusiastic Russian university students. His experience was that sometimes they would be in the rhythm of a wonderful wavelength of communication, and then suddenly they would find themselves in separate worlds. I had a similar experience with a colleague from Beijing.
But sooner or later, as the saying goes, love wins. The love of the Father, revealed in our world, is the power to triumph over all the stuff that fills the media with stories of distress.
Thanks to all the participants for helping to generate a community of discourse that can be widely shared. You and Dr. Perry and Elaine and Michael Hanian and Martin and the many others who have helped us from the first progress with this philosophy of living venture! All are sharing in a great evolution.
About seven years ago my partner and I purchased nine acres of land on a gravel road about three miles outside of the small, rural town of Alsea (pop. 164) in the Coast Range of Oregon. It had an abandoned cow pasture of about 4.5 acres and came with an acre of pond and surrounds, and about 3.5 acres of forest. There was nothing on the property except three 120’ Douglas firs set about in the pasture.
After much effort and not a few resources we now have a wonderful home with gardens, orchard, berry patch, raised beds, mower barn, shed, chicken coop and a guest house. And our entry into ‘farming’ has us as USDA certified organic grass hay farmers and as a licensed Oregon Domestic Kitchen, which allows us to sell our jams to John Boy’s Mercantile, in town.
The property is on a slope and the manufactured house is set so the front faces east, the back faces west and a wide, covered porch faces north toward the pond. There are wonderful ridge lines of trees that offer a great stage for sunrises and sunsets. A wall of tall fir and oak and newly planted maples line the far side of the pond and frame it nicely.
The house is surrounded by wide decks and plenty of places to sit and look. From the porch we can watch the Canadian geese in their annual peregrinations, the great blue herons, kingfishers and osprey fish for the blue gill in the pond as well as the deer taking advantage of the old, golden delicious apple tree that sits between the firs and the water line; it was discovered and pretty much devastated by a bear last year, however apple trees have a strong will to survive and it has come back nicely this year – sans pommes, unfortunately.
And I should say something about the quiet. One hears only the wind and bird song.
And then there are the stars at night. When we have guests, after dinner it is ritual to wrap up in warm Mexican blankets and take comfort in the lounges on the wide, west deck, stare up at the sky – and watch. The rules are simple: sightings of planes and satellites have to be witnessed to be counted, but meteors are accepted on one’s word. If perchance the international space station is in orbit over the house, delight is taken in declaring when and where it will rise and set. It is quite bright against a moonless sky.
The names of stars, constellations and asterisms (the Summer Triangle) are learned and taught. The one who sees the first star of the night is congratulated on fine eyesight and we all share the wonder at watching the panoply of twinkling lights emerge into the night sky. The locations of planets are identified, too.
We are surrounded by beauty and our experience and appreciation of it is set out amidst the peace and quiet that encompasses us.
As I look about me, especially at sunset, I am often moved from deep appreciation to thanksgiving to a humbling and undeveloped state of worship. I shake my head in amazement at it all – the fact of beauty, the fact of my experience of it and the fact of ‘me’. One day I will feel and know myself to be more apart of it all – more related to our Father – and my experience of worship will be deepened and made more satisfying thereby.
As I am recently retired, there have been moments of reflection that included questions of value and relevance in my new life. And after some deep pondering, I came up with my new career as a “pasture artist” in that I began with a blank canvass – the pasture – and created a place that is now called Sweeney Pond Farms. It is my experience of ‘artistic living’. We call Sweeney Pond Farms a refuge for your soul.
Exquisite, Michael: your area in Oregon, your achievement with the land, your appreciation with friends, and your description.
One of the things about a pioneering conversation such as this is (in some ways) is that new discoveries constantly arise. You have given voice to an added essential of natural beauty that John Muir (to be introduced tomorrow morning) does not include: the beauty of the history of the (non-exploitative) human relation with nature. You have mentioned yourself as a part of nature–obvious enough, yet easy to overlook for one persons who, in a way, transcend nature in worship.
And your generous reflection goes so far as to remind me of one of the essential debates in aesthetics and my attempted contribution to that debate: Is beauty a quality of what we perceive or merely “in the eye of the beholder”? I say both. The Creator’s gift of beauty is sewn into the creation and also into our own inner capacity for response.
Dearest brother Jeff,
Your kind and generous words delight my soul.
You write, “Is beauty a quality of what we perceive or [is it] merely “in the eye of the beholder”? I say both. The Creator’s gift of beauty is sewn into the creation and also into our own inner capacity for response.” I think you are spot on.
Beauty is one aspect of Divinity that we can comprehend, experience as mortals. What a great design! One can forget that the experiences of truth, beauty and goodness are our initiations into experiencing God. The love of our Father is introduced to many of us through the perception of the beauty in the world around us. And it’s just the beginning. How blessed we are.
Michael
Leap-frog! You write, “The experiences of truth, beauty, and goodness are our initiations into experiencing God.” Yes!
These values are the divine outreach from eternity into time. But, as you note, we can forget. Some shadow falls across our thinking, feeling, and doing; and we momentarily lose the spiritual center of gravity. The language of values can seem ambiguous–indifferently open to either secular or religious interpretations. So the concepts are contested.
A friend of mine from the University of California in Berkeley told of a trip to St. Petersburg where he spoke with enthusiastic Russian university students. His experience was that sometimes they would be in the rhythm of a wonderful wavelength of communication, and then suddenly they would find themselves in separate worlds. I had a similar experience with a colleague from Beijing.
But sooner or later, as the saying goes, love wins. The love of the Father, revealed in our world, is the power to triumph over all the stuff that fills the media with stories of distress.
Thanks to all the participants for helping to generate a community of discourse that can be widely shared. You and Dr. Perry and Elaine and Michael Hanian and Martin and the many others who have helped us from the first progress with this philosophy of living venture! All are sharing in a great evolution.