February 11, 2008

  • Timeless Beauty

    It rained all night two days ago and in the morning, as we walked down the alley, there was a puddle in one of the many potholes and valleys of the uneven tarmac. The tarmac in the puddle was broken and segmented like you sometimes see in a drought, but the rainwater had filled it up and the quality of light had changed it from gritty gray-black to brown green that might have been ugly anywhere else, but was exquisite under its watery shell, like a tidepool that had collected color instead of sea creatures.

    I never have a camera at the ready, and I really should start carrying one. So often I see things of such incredible beauty and I know they will not last. It seems the most beautiful things last only a few moments before being swallowed by time. Some see time as order, but I think it is an element of chaos. It is not a leisurely line, but spreads out in all directions, not a trickle, but a torrent constantly changing and warping everything it touches. Order is stillness. In order, time stops and we see, if only for an instant, the beauty all around us. The beauty in a rain puddle for instance or the golden beauty of a mote of dust in a vein of light.

    There is so much beauty in the world, but we rarely see it as we are carried along by the chaotic torrent of time. Instead of swimming, we let time carry us along like a leaf, spinning and tumbling; we barely have the time to notice the beauty around us, let alone stop and admire it. We allow time to separate us from our perceptions. Cogito Ergo Sum, I think therefore I am. Like Descartes, I am an idealist. I am not this body or these fingers which type these words. I am these words. I am these perceptions. I stop time by observing myself and my surroundings. Time marches on outside of myself, but while I am still, there is order; everything is changeless and in that pocket of timelessness, I am free to perceive beauty. By perceiving something as beautiful, I make it so. I create the world as I lovingly observe it. By admiring beautiful moments and giving them significance, I ensure a world which will continue to harbor beautiful moments. This is my world. I share it with you through these words.

    February 11th

    The famous apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes, an ancient shrine to the goddess, occurred today. This was the last manifestation of the goddess at this site.

    Osiris had a feast day in Abydos on the 28th day of Pamenot.

Comments (7)

  • I love the gentle certainty of Our Lady as Goddess. It's so beautiful. As water in concrete, dirty clouds, a splash. You are beloved.

  • Dear Candace,

    I chase cloudscapes with a camera. I know "fleeting beauty" very well. Sometimes, though, I do catch some wonderful instances when serendipity and nature are at work. You mentioned a puddle, so here's a "puddle picture" for you.

    Also I'm going to present an "answer poem"., written in 1971. I am inspired to present it for you because of your line: "we let time carry us like a leaf."

    Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

    "Depression II"
    Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
    1971 (18 years old)

    I feel so much
    Like a shriveling leaf
    Tied to the oak
    With a slender stem
    Waiting so cautiously
    For the sweeping wind
    To carry me from my tree.

    Here I wave
    Like a dying flag unfurled
    With the red of Autumn
    And the red of victory
    Curdling among the clay on the ground
    Where I shall make my resting place
    With the next wind.

    It blows the cinders
    Like erratic romeos
    Courting the blue with their dust
    The wind comes blowing
    Past my ears
    And the slender thread that holds me
    Prepares to sever.

    I am sate to discover
    That the wind has stopped
    And though my life still
    Hanging by the slivers of tentacles
    Grasping with uncertain grip
    I am positive that come the blow
    Next I will decapitate.

    And here it is
    Like a whirling gusto
    Sweeping the mountains down
    And gathering hills on the plain
    And splitting past my meagerness
    Slicing ever so valiantly
    Through my last remaining string.

    So I fall
    Like a shriveled leaf
    Waiting to die
    And I cannot come to the morning
    Touching face down in the clay
    My autumn red becomes a brown
    My softness comes a crackle.

    I shrivel moreover
    Scattering my ashes to the wind
    And it carries past my problems
    The essence of my life.

  • i love what you've written here today. it is so true.

  • Lovely post.  Rain brings such spirit energy~

    I have always rejected the dualism of Descartes, though.

    Blessings of the Hours~

  • i think you may have been in that movie "dude where's my car"

  • that was a pretty post. XD

    re: i think you're right. sooner or later the being a jerk will catch up with him and i won't need to do anything.

  • you know, i always like reading what you write. since, i've subscribed, it's always been interesting and very thoughtful. it's true, we do miss the truly beautiful things because they pass so quickly. i think i'll start carrying a camera with me more often because the other day [last week] i seen a lone yellow flower sticking out of some snow....and it was amazing.

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