An orchid, resting on a bed of ice is beautiful. The softness of the petals and the hardness of the ice; along with the one thing they have so much in common – transience – is gorgeous.
It is impossible to underestimate the importance of beauty. John O’Donohue reminds us that the physical is the shoreline of the spiritual. To see physical beauty is breathtaking, but only if one has slowed down enough and trained one’s mind enough to be able – even willing – to see it.
This orchid on ice was in the center of a table at which I once ate. It called to me like a lost lover, and it was so hard to take my eyes off it that I found it hard to maintain a conversation with my guests. The beauty hurt.
What would it be like to spend one day (perhaps this one) looking for beauty in strange places? What would it be like to spend the day listing the colors one has seen or the three most beautiful things of the day and then to have a beautiful conversation with a friend about the beauty – like two hunters on safari in a world hung with beauty by a God who is beauty?
