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I wish I had a river to skate away on
Dec. 11th, 2016 02:49 amJoni Mitchell's River
Dec. 11th, 2016
ache to be worthy of beauty
Dec. 11th, 2016 12:35 pm
Posted by Parker J. Palmer. His words below:
A few years ago, I was lucky to hear Mary Oliver read her poetry at a Wellesley College convocation. During the Q&A, someone asked her, "What is the purpose of beauty?" Her remarkable answer is below...
Mary Oliver's words contain a quiet challenge in a world where daily we wake up to news that's far from beautiful and is often downright ugly.
Suppose we tried to offset whatever ugliness we find in this morning's headlines with simple acts of kindness and generosity—acts that say, without words, "Thank you for the beauty that's been given to us in nature and human nature." Surely the result would be a world of greater beauty.
Memo to self: Find something of beauty to focus on—something in the natural world and/or the people around you—allow yourself to feel the ache to be worthy of it, and find some way to say "Thank you!" with your work and your life.
P.S. The beautiful woodcut on which I placed Mary Oliver's words is by a Wisconsin artist named Nick Wroblewski, whose website is well worth exploring. http://tinyurl.com/2bg7hha
Doe, A Deer, a Female Deer: The Spirit of Mother Christmas
The whole article is good. Here's a bit about sacred textiles: Mary B. Kelly’s book Goddess Embroideries Of Eastern Europe explores images of the horned deer mother in the sacred textiles of women. The image of the mother goddess Rohanitsa is often shown with antlers and gives birth to deer as well as children. For her feast day in late December (most likely solstice) white iced cookies shaped like deer were given as presents or good luck tokens, and red and white embroidery depicting her image were displayed.
The whole article is good. Here's a bit about sacred textiles: Mary B. Kelly’s book Goddess Embroideries Of Eastern Europe explores images of the horned deer mother in the sacred textiles of women. The image of the mother goddess Rohanitsa is often shown with antlers and gives birth to deer as well as children. For her feast day in late December (most likely solstice) white iced cookies shaped like deer were given as presents or good luck tokens, and red and white embroidery depicting her image were displayed.