Life has been a whirlwind lately, so this is my first post of 2023, writing with my Spiritual Journey writing group. Thanks to Margaret Simon for organizing our group, and for providing this lovely new logo:
Our group tradition has been to choose One Little Word as our spiritual companion for the year. I've decided on "beauty" as my word for 2023. I've been interested in the concept of beauty for some years, and it finally came to me that perhaps beauty has a spiritual component. Beauty comes in many forms, and it fascinates me how our concept has changed over time, and also that we each have an individual sense of it. I hope I can find a way to tie the concept of beauty to my spiritual practice.
One of my loves is young children, and I find great beauty in their innocence and joy. I hope you can indulge me as I share just a few of my friends and family.
I remember a story, I think from Madeline L'Engle: A young child, maybe 3 or 4 years old, wanted to be left alone with the new baby in the family. Her parents were nervous, afraid the older sibling might be jealous of the new baby, and might do harm. When the parents finally allowed the older child to be alone with the baby, they watched as she sat with the new one, studying the newborn. Later the parents asked why she had needed to be alone with the baby. "I was forgetting what God was like."
To see the beauty of God in a child is just one of many ways we experience beauty. We feel the beauty of spirit when we notice courage, love, patience, self-control, kindness and more.
1 Peter 3:4 encourages us:
Cultivate inner beauty, the gentle, gracious kind that God delights in.
Of course we also see beauty in the world, in music, in art, and in many unexpected places.
So, I hope to continue sharing my year with beauty, and I hope that each of you will share your responses and sources of beauty as we go along.
Psalm 27:4 - I’m asking God for one thing,
only one thing:
To live with him in his house
my whole life long.
I’ll contemplate his beauty;
I’ll study at his feet.
Many blessings for the year ahead.
