Rejuvenated by Beauty
Transcipt
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Here.
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My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been so blessed and refreshed by music. When sick and weary. Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitation of the soul. Martin Luther rejuvenated by beauty. Welcome listeners to episode three of The Puzzlers. This is Tracy today for your rejuvenation, we want to hold before you a bouquet of beauty in thought, in word, in conversation, and with our opening music for Moritz Nyman, who has generously allowed us to share his music with you.
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Music that has been a gift of beauty for me in this year, when it found me in real need of rejuvenation. Please be sure to see your show notes for ways to connect with his collection of songs and albums and beautiful, restorative music. Before we begin. Take a long, deep breath. Beauty is all around us and is essential to our lives.
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Like the oxygen that fills our lungs. Our challenge is that too easily we treat beauty like perfume, an unnecessary luxury that we may sometimes indulge in, but it's easily set aside as not essential in our distracted or driven day to day lives. Sometimes what we need most, both for rejuvenation and to recognize beauty, is to simply slow down.
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Bringing their own beauty to our bouquet today. Are my fellow puzzlers. Sue? Hello, Katherine. Hi there. And Val. Hi. Welcome, ladies. I'm looking forward to our conversation today and the beauty it will bring. So let me ask you before we get going. When you think of beauty, what comes to mind? What kind of things pop into your mind?
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Fresh sourdough bread from my own oven. I knew you were going to say that soon. I love, cutting into an heirloom tomato or an heirloom beets. Or, like, I love produce in general. Actually, farmers markets, all that kind of mustard. People and laughter and growth and sharing and I have quite a list. Can I keep you please.
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Oh I have more. I'll be popping in because it's such a vast, topic. Compassion and the sky and flowers and colors. Certain words serendipity or kindred spirit and God's heart. I've always loved the sound of Music from another room. And when my son would play guitar or somebody playing piano somewhere else in the house, that just something different.
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I love live music in general, but when it comes from another room in the house and just floats too, you love that. As well as people talking, sharing, laughing in another room. If my family is with me but not with me. Yes, I love that impromptu hugs. So beautiful. The sound of water lapping on the shore has always had a certain music to me.
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I love smooth pebbles in my hand. Yes, the ones that fit right in that little. That little spot in your palm. And I keep them in my pocket so that I find them again. I've always had a passion for bare branches. Yes. Yeah. Me too. Yes. The shape that they make, I collect them I, you know my bare broken heart that often represents.
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Oh you look at Lauren Harris or some of those group of some really sharp bare branches and tree. Yeah. Yeah. And they are created. Art is so often representing nature as well. I also love similar to that but different is driftwood you know. So those bare branches that have been worn by water. Yeah. And sea glass along the same line.
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That's why I wear my necklace where I can't. I saw that this morning. Where, where time has worn something I always find that I love rust. I find it particularly beautiful because of the message of of endurance. But also where I find that really beautiful. Anyone else love rust? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. You do. To go for it.
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Fresh and dutiful. When my iron pan start rusting, I get really annoyed. I love for. I, I just got beautiful old rusty keys when I was away from my husband. An antique store, like a big one. And. Yeah. So all of these different things are beauty there. What we see here smell, taste, touch. But they're the interactions. They're the memories like.
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And so listener as we're going through it is a bouquet of beauty. And there's not a right or wrong of the beauty. So we invite you and I invite you just to be considering what is beautiful for you. And beautiful is sometimes looking back on a memory and thinking, that was beautiful. So beauty is all of these things and so much more.
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And it's certainly more than we've been kind of pushed on us of glamor and cosmetics. Actually doing a Google search around beauty brought up so much that was so superficial. And that doesn't mean there's not a place for that care and self care, but beauty is so much more in our human souls, resonate with and are hungry for beauty.
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John Muir in 19th century naturalist, explorer and author, wrote everybody needs beauty as well as bread. We're uniquely wired for beauty. Have you ever seen birds sitting on a hydro wire admiring the sunset? No. Oh, I have. You've done well. I thought you were just gonna say birds singing on a wire. I find that beautiful. That is beautiful.
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But have you ever seen them actually admiring the sunset? I think so. Or you know what? My dogs, if they wandered past a Van Gogh, they wouldn't be doing much. Right. So you humans are uniquely wired to see beauty, to receive beauty. Beauty begets wonder when a wow escapes your lips or you're left speechless. Beauty can stop you in your tracks.
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Cause your heart to swell or send shiver goosebumps up and down your spine. Early Christian writers spoke of God as beauty itself and saw it theologically intertwined with truth and goodness. All this, and yet beauty remains somewhat slippery, mysterious ones who are wiser than I am. Plato, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, C.S. Lewis have all been fascinated by beauty, describing it and the way it affects us.
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But while somehow managing to do everything but define it. Because beauty doesn't fit into boxes. One of my favorite beautiful thinkers, an unknown 14th century mystic, the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, says of God that he whom neither men nor angels can grasp by knowledge. Can be embraced by love. I believe beauty is similar. Beauty is elusive and embracing, terrifying and tender within and without.
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It is between and beyond. Silent and symphonic, sensorial and supernatural. Beauty is a mover of imagination. I conceive her of creativity, a fountainhead of faith. It is a bastion for the battered, a balm for the broken breath for the betrayed. Beauty is an awakening of forgotten brightness, an overflow of God's glory. An ancient truth of Tov. It is a greeting and a guide.
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A treasure map and trove. A birthright beckoning us all. The question of beauty, in all of its breadth and brilliance, is not answered with a what, but who. So we may find it really difficult to define beauty, but there are so many ways that we can engage with it and explore it together. So one of the ways that we did that was in our last episode with Sue, where we discussed being rejuvenated by nature.
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And if you haven't heard that yet, please go back and listen to it. They're very interconnected. So we can engage with beauty in creation. But another way we encounter beauty is through things created. We may not consider ourselves artists, but we are all creative. This is part of what it means to be made in the image of God am I?
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Good day. John O'Donohue writes God does not only make those who encounter beauty, God makes those who create beauty. This category is as wide as human. Creativity is vast from spreadsheets to symphonies, building houses to the art that hangs on the walls. Dancing when no one's watching. To the pirouette of a prima ballerina. So, puzzlers, can you share with us something created or creative that rejuvenates you and what makes it beautiful for you?
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Beauty I see in looking at me. So I'll say I know you're looking right. I, I love this question, and I considered it in a few different ways. And but where my heart went first, I initially I shied away from because I thought, I don't think that's what we really want to talk about. I thought maybe this was different, but honestly, one of the most beautiful experiences that I have.
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My goodness, I'm getting emotional. Is designing a space for a client? Or a friend. And it's it's multilayered. I feel really honored. Truly honored when somebody invites me into their space and says, help me make this function. Help me make it beautiful. Help me make it cozy. Help me make it whatever it is thereafter.
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But they're looking for an expression of themselves. Yes. And they usually need some form of functionality as well. And I find functionality streamlines at home. So I love, like, an organized pantry. I find beautiful because I know that day in, day out, somebody's life is going to flow better. And that's beautiful. You're giving them peace and time and and flow.
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And so I, I really do find it an honor. There's nothing like that moment when you get to the end of a project. You have become a friend with someone because they open themselves up to you. And all of that is beautiful. There's a sharing back and forth, and you get to the end of it and you go, here's this space that you are now going to live in every day.
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Every moment you're going to wake here and spend time here with your family. And I can envision, you know, memories being made and all that sort of thing. And I find it absolutely beautiful to be invited into that. And I love that because it's so valuable. And part of what I'm thankful to explore in this time, because when we think of the things that are created, there are things that we easily go to and I think are so valuable to consider still.
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But like music and art and art galleries, but it's so much more. It's so much more and it's lived out of our identity. Yeah. Like you see my brain went in a few different directions. So as you said something created and creative and I was thinking of like the sea glass necklace my kids made and this beautiful bracelet that Nicole gave me.
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And even you were talking of writing so thinking like Diane Lane Bergen and Vos camp and our brother John Rodel. Right. Those things. But they stir me up. They they wake me up. And so, when I was thinking about how something that's beautiful that rejuvenates me, it actually made me think of a culinary things. Baking, making cookies or treats or something for someone.
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Sensory delight. Me being present in that moment, watching it transform and grow, expand and change. Me. Being able to be present in my time, but also giving this gift of nourishment or care for somebody. And being in that moment, we have tons of allergies. So baking has become like a science to of mystery. So using my gut to look at the consistencies, what do I add?
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What do I take away? So for me, I think baking is beautiful. Yeah. And there's so many senses even a moment to think about baking bread to the touch of the making, the fragrance of it, baking and taste obviously those kind of spaces. And it's also so connected to for me for memories like baking with my mom and baking for people.
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And you know what I mean? That just there's so many pieces there for me that connects to beauty. Those are the beautiful memory moments too, right? That can we can watch for. My first thought was, flower arrangements because I always have flowers in my house, and it's kind of. My friends always say, well, your house has fresh flowers.
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One of my favorite places to go is an indoor greenhouse near us called the Watering Can. Especially in the winter. They just have so many, like, fresh, juicy plants, all over the place. And, then they arrange them so beautifully. Like different textures, different heights, different colors, and then usually put into a pot that just ties it all together.
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And maybe there's a little trinket in there, a little wooden house or at Christmas, some bulbs or, or, you know, a little bow. So I just, I don't know, I just, I think it's this collaboration, between what God's made and what humans make that really intrigues me. Obviously, God created these plants and we grew them, but we can create them, and then we're putting them all together.
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So I just I think it's that collaboration of human and God, it just speaks to me. And it's I love things that are organic and natural and have a life inside them. And so that speaks of beauty to me. And I love this. Like part of that. The other part of that question is like, the beauty that we're drawn to.
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Shows us something about ourselves. And so, I mean, please come back to this, but I hear that and what you're saying, your phrase collaborating with God. Right. Like, I hear that even in your own book and those places like your your book that you've published, the the journeying with God and then you creating it out and, I know that like one of the things for me.
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So part of the question is what you've shared. And I heard it in there. Is there beauty in that that also is telling you more something about yourself. And so, for example, I heard it in each of your ones. So just to recap, it's a little bit. But for me for example, I love, like we said, the beauty, the stark beauty of contrast, a bare tree against a blue sky art with really bold lines and contrasting colors.
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I love the juxtaposition of thoughts. I love paradox. I love that word Paradise. And I love and I love words and phrases like bittersweet. Yeah, and deafening silence. Mystery. Soft fascination. This last one. And if you know me, this is also me that both and that comes into contrast. So I heard it in each of yours.
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But I would like to jump back to Katherine's first, I think because I particularly heard some of it there. Katherine, what do you think you're rejuvenated by? Beauty speaks of about you as your identity. It's interesting because, I answer questions like in the order they are. And so I was like, oh, wow. I had like an insight because, you know, I would have picked my coaching business as beautiful too.
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But action and talk about it and joy. But, I'm, I think because of transformation, growing something new, giving of my time, inner nourishment, seeing people's responses, using my gut in science, mystery and tools. I was like, oh yeah, baking is like the things that like reading, right? So I'm like, interesting. Tracy, you well, evenly or even your, need to work around allergies and gluten.
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It's this, awareness and compassion for the things that are problematic for people. Yeah. And adapting and considering those spaces. So. Yeah, I really heard it in yours. It was really beautiful. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. We had finished. That's a blessing that you see me. So thank you, you know. Yeah. And we're still learning even during our podcast.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're having breakthroughs. Yeah. We're doing it right. Yeah. I love the questions that end up being posed. Just overall rejuvenated. Yeah. In this year it's been amazing. Yeah yeah. And we certainly heard it in Suze about who she is. That bringer of beauty to space and relationship and relationship I think I think to be able to be to form relationships with people and, and serve them through something that I love creating.
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Yeah. Because I, I do, love creating spaces, but to be able to do it in relationship with somebody new is really fun. Like, I've met some fascinating characters over the years. So yeah, yeah, because I am a relational person for sure. And I actually have the privilege of seeing and observing your beauty some of the time.
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In, in a in our church, there's an individual that's often near you, and I just can feel the compassion and the coming alongside presence like those kind of things. You can't segment beauty into senses and relationship in nature any more than you can separate us up into body, soul, spirit and say that there's divine lines. But but those are beauty places.
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And like May we always have eyes to see and ears to hear again. Sometimes we don't even slow down enough or names of things that we are appreciating. This actually came for me more in joy. But to name the thing as beauty and some of the reason I was drawn to this podcast or this particular topic for our podcast, is how often other back pieces as God kind of led me toward it.
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But actually hearing myself say so often, that's beautiful, that's beautiful. And not necessarily in the concrete kind of spaces. Was there anything else that you wanted to say from your, watering can? Picture that you feel speaks to you. Well I was just thinking as Catherine was talking to I, I think that for me I find a lot of beauty and seeing things balanced, you know, and I was thinking about that, you know, like one of the things that I wrote down that I find beautiful is it when I train my daughter in the driveway to shoot a basketball, I don't really know how to shoot a basketball, but, I can see her
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body mechanics, so I can see when something's slightly off and what would make that work better for her. And so when she gets, she just gets in that perfect groove and that ball is just landing in a perfect swish. Something about that just sits so beautifully with me, I love that. And then also just in my work, when someone takes a deep breath and they release and and I can bring them back into better balance and, and almost like restoring something back to what it's intended to be like, this restorative beauty.
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And that's what I find beautiful. So it's not necessarily that is. Oh, you. Yeah. That is so you because you I mean, you've brought balance back to my body in different ways through massage and the different exercises you give me. That's it. That's really unique. And what I love in that is that one of the thoughts that is so prevalent around beauty is that it brings us home.
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It's a connection to God brings us home to our self. And what you even just kind of said there was, it's like bringing that body back into alignment. Into its home position if you will. Right. And to function. And that's what we're designed of that bringing us home. That's really cool. That's a really neat way to think of beauty to it's bringing us home.
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That's really what it is. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I just have to point out that you said swish you. So we were contemplating nicknames. More on that another time, but okay. Yeah we'll keep working on that one. Nicknames. But nicknames in themselves. It's interesting it came up to nicknames or unkind nicknames or whole other conversation. But nicknames are an expression of beauty because they are expression of connection.
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Totally love, right? Yeah, so I totally love that. And so. But beauty doesn't have to depend just on our senses. Like we can think and expose ourselves to all kinds of spaces and experiences like that. And we've already kind of touched into this because you can't break it into categories. But beauty doesn't just belong there. Helen Keller, who's one of my heroes, was deaf.
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Blind. And mute. And if you ever want to be inspired look at her and her life. Talk about a beautiful life. She said once the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. So another place we encountered, beauty we encountered in nature. We encounter in things created and that we create as image bearers of God.
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But another place is in human relationship. Beauty connects us to each other. We were talking, I think, but yes, before the episode began and Sue was sharing about Christmas baking and family. And that's not just the Christmas baking. It's the beauty of connection, the beauty and memory, the beauty of tradition. There is a connecting power within it and it can be small places like so.
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Have you ever experienced something really beautiful and you've wanted to share it with something like. That's part of humans being both wired for beauty, unlike the bird sitting on the wire, right? You are beautiful to look at, but that we're wired for beauty. But then we also want to share it. We want to turn and say something about it.
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And so, like my son who works night shifts, he will often come home. And he has taken he's stayed later and taken pictures of the sunrise. And then he'll come home, or he'll like a little side trip outside of town a little bit and take a picture. So there's connection there. But this connection can also be with a complete stranger.
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So Michael and I were heading away for a weekend, in the earlier in the fall, and with all the back and forth and kids going our stuff, two of our dogs got out who thankfully were not in heat because that would have been a whole other adventure. But we were heading out the door and we were like, down the street.
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And it was a stranger who was the chef at the restaurant around the corner. I kind of turned a corner and the lady said, like, are your dogs loose? Like my chef just went after them, turned the block and this man had scooped up one of them. And certainly my heart was filled with gratitude. But what I found with the stranger I just remember thinking, is such a beautiful man.
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And I thought, that's kind of a strange thing to think. And he wasn't not good looking, but what it was, was kind of awesome. And so sometimes the connection is all over the place. So have you ever experienced something like this? Whether you've experienced it, observed it? I know we've shared some of these stories. There's been some beautiful ones that we have shared at other times.
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But where you've witnessed something in or from another human being and just thought something like, wow, that's beautiful. And if you did, did that experience of beauty feel you caused you to feel more connected to that person? That is such an awesome question I love that. And for me it's both clients kids ministry, women's ministry, relationships, like walking with people and watching them grow is like, so beautiful.
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Because I love your question. It says in awe from right. So it's actually like beauty in them. Seeing them understand themselves, seeing them understand their needs, finding new tools, changes and growth. Sometimes they'll even say, who is this person like, I can see I'm really growing right when they're pulling out lies or holding on to truth. And sometimes they'll even like, send me something throughout the week.
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A word like a song, a poem or a video that resonates with like something that's growing in them. And I just feel such like a swell of gratitude because not only do I get to see them kind of like opening up and blooming like a flower is kind of how I picture it. But being part of their joy in the transformation of what's happening.
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So it's it's a sacred I feel connected both in what's going on in them and then, in the blossoming. But their willingness to like, share that and allow me to enter into be part of and, multiply their joy. So what an honor. Yeah, I was going to say what a privilege. I was just sitting here listening to you going, yeah, this is certainly beautiful.
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And so connected to what Catherine was sharing on last episode, relating to gardening. Right. And even in the connection to beauty. See, there's beauty in those cultivated gardens. There's beauty in the, the heather that grows over the Highlands of Scotland, that is not tended. There's this is beauty in all of these places. But I particularly like cultivating in the gardens the cultivating in heart hearts.
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Not a surprise, because it's a life forward for you and your ministry. It is you, this this question, this question. I spent a lot of time reflecting on this because it made me cry when I when I thought about all the various, beauty acts of beauty, moments of beauty that I've been shown by other people. And I realized just how how rich it has been, how rich my life has been with generosity.
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And I realized that a generous spirit which isn't always giving me something. Oh, you know, it's not about that. It's a generous spirit. It's a it's an offering that comes from the heart. You know, whether that's understanding or hospitality or patience. Support, heartfelt conversation can be an act of generosity. It's not. That's what I mean. It's not things.
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It's the giving of yourself. Yeah. It's just the most beautiful thing that I can think of in another human. And the primary example, which does contain a thing. But, I was in a the very first missions trip that I ever went on was to the Dominican Republic. And, it was in a very humble village and had visited a woman in her home who was part of a young children's program.
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And as we left her home, she gave me a jar of stewed coconut. And she had so little food in her house. This was a woman in great, great need. We were in a very impoverished area and she gave me a jar of stewed coconut, and I held this jar and everything in me wanted to give it back to her and saying like, no, no, like you, you have need of this.
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Also, I can't take this on. The plane went through my head like, what am I even going to do with this? And I didn't want to be wasteful and everything else. But as I looked at her face and she just, she put her hands across her heart and she gave me a hug and she was like, putting your hands out.
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Like, no, keep it please. Like, take this. I realized that the the how much it would give her for me to just receive it graciously. She she was doing what she could to be thankful and grateful and and express that. And but it was such an enormous, generous offering. I just think of that moment, I think of it often.
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And believe it or not, the security let me on the plane with that stewed coconut, and I kept it in my fridge for the longest time. And to do a stewed coconut, I kept it as a symbol. Yeah. I kept it on my door where I could see it, and sadly, it it got thrown out by accident by someone else, but it, I kept that for years.
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Yeah. And my French. And it speaks of the richness, like you use that word, the richness of beauty. Like one of the metaphors, like that piece that was the the poetry that I, that I shared, the poems that that the analogies are so different because it's a treasure map and treasure trove. Right? So it leads us and guides us forward when we see it.
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But the riches, like the treasure trove, is what you just really brought forward. And like I can see the the gathering together of beauty and it nourishes like just even when you talk about the coconut. Not that you need it, but it's nourishing, it's riches, it's nourishing, it's watering, it's, those kind of places. So good treasure trove and treasure map, which I think really connects to our relationship with God because ultimately, like the early Christian psyche is beauty itself.
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And she just loved on you. Yeah. Yeah. She was like it was like the widow's might as well you know giving from. Yeah. So little. She gave everything. Yeah. Oh that is that makes let's me weave actually memories of, of people like that. Right. Where you come to their house and they want to lavish their lavish on you.
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Yeah. Another good word. Well I, I feel very, inspired in beauty, I guess when I worship with people in church, like the praise team, the music, and then all the people around me. I remember a few weeks ago, I was in church, and there is a man sitting in front of me, and he had his son sitting on his shoulders, which doesn't happen very often at our church, but he was about 2 or 3 years old.
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And through the worship songs, this little boy just had his hands raised in the air for the entire time worshiping. And I, I don't know if he felt connected to God particularly, or he saw everyone around him worshiping or if, he saw his dad worshiping, but somehow he felt like he wanted to be part of something bigger.
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And I don't know, he just inspired me. And, it just reminded me that we're all connected and we're all together in this. It felt like a little bit of heaven, I think. And that thing about the child. Right. Children have a capacity to slow down and see beauty. So like if you've ever gone for a walk with a little person you don't race.
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At least my little guys, especially my one son, he would see everything. Like when you talked about this polished pebbles or the, the slowing down to see the Beatles and those kind of things. There's a slowing down and those things we can sometimes be so busy in our lives. Not necessarily pebbles and bugs, but we can be so busy that we don't see that beauty is everywhere, that it really is.
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Beauty is oxygen. Beauty is actually the air that we breathe, literally in a lot of ways too, right? Because it fuels life. But it's also very quietly woven into our ordinary day. So sometimes we hardly notice it. And sometimes encountering beauty, receiving it really is a choice. So I'm from a family of five girls, and we grew up on a farm in Ontario among wide open fields.
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Our sister Barb married and moved into the mountains of British Columbia, which are no question beautiful. My first experience of coming, I was ten coming actually to her wedding, driving across. My mom loved beauty and beauty was the thing that would make her cry. She always felt bad. She couldn't cry, but something beautiful could make her cry. And I remember her saying, look at, look at that line of clouds.
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You see what looks like a line of clouds on the horizon. And I was ten in the back seat, peeking. And she said, that's the mountains. And I remember I actually wrote down I, Tracy Korine on this date, saw the mountains for the first time. We stopped to take note of things you and I talk about when you were talking about all of nature, wonder of nature.
00;33;18;06 - 00;33;44;13
When we came into those Rocky Mountains for the first time and being ten and just staring up, were you wearing that adorable little petticoat? Yeah. So I had that time. But we drove. But she she was past the Rockies into the Selkirk's, which are more rounded mountains. She for a lot of time would come in, but she always missed the beauty of sunrise and sunset.
00;33;44;15 - 00;34;19;02
She lost that innocence. She loved to come out to our sister in Alberta in the wide open fields. But she also really came to love the beauty of the long, slow dawning and the lingering twilights which you'd experience because the sun would have risen or set, but it would be built up or behind the mountains sooner. So in that what that really reminded me of when I was just preparing and praying around this is that, again, seeing beauty is a choice, and sometimes seeing beauty takes practice.
00;34;19;05 - 00;34;44;06
The poet Mary Oliver says, stop, be astonished. Tell about it. And he Dillard phrases it are is is to notice. Ours is to show up, to be attentive. Ralph Waldo Emerson says, and I love this. Never lose an opportunity to see anything beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting. So in this kind of practice, it also allows us to see beauty in some of life's most difficult places.
00;34;44;08 - 00;35;12;09
And if you're familiar with Corrie ten boom, many people are from the hiding place. Her sister Betsy was such an example of beauty to her, because she was able to see beauty even in the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp, and she brought beauty to others in the ultimate ugly look. So yeah. So my question is puzzles. Have you ever intentionally practiced beholding beauty?
00;35;12;12 - 00;35;44;18
If so, what was that experience like? It's wide open. Any practical tips? Kind of. Maybe tossed us in at the last minute, but any practical tips to help our listener and if you have experienced beauty helping you through a dark or difficult time and are comfortable sharing that, the practice of beholding beauty, when I was a kid, I loved to lay on the grass and look into the blades and try to see the insects and the little world, and was a maze.
00;35;44;18 - 00;36;11;22
I remember laying under the Christmas tree and looking up at all the twinkling lights and talking to God, and I remember losing that. I remember, losing the ability to do that. I think life got really busy. You got lots of responsibilities. It got harder, and I remember, actually it was in a, like a really hard season, thinking I need to look for what is still beautiful.
00;36;11;29 - 00;36;31;25
Yeah. And so it was a transformative choice for me. I realized I had lost my present moment focus, and that in doing that, I was only holding sorrow and not joy, which is a hint to our next episode, I know, but I so I made this conscious choice that I was going to beauty hunt. I was going to look for beauty, I was going to record beauty.
00;36;31;25 - 00;36;50;19
So it started with a joy jar. So anything that I found that was beautiful, I put a little pebble, I put a little, piece of glass. I put a little something in it, even a little note to remind me of that, or to take a picture of it to actually, focus and see what was still beautiful.
00;36;50;19 - 00;37;16;22
So the process of beauty hunting has just become a thing that I do and I purposefully do, and I make sure I put it into my days and my weeks. I actually encourage and teach my clients to do that as well. Because it is so transformative. And I think it's actually a piece of what helped me counter Covid better, because in the middle of it all, I was continually looking for what was still beautiful.
00;37;16;22 - 00;37;38;20
Right? So that's a piece of it for me. What a great question. Thank you. Trace. And I'll put resources into the notes. But one Timothy Willard's book is called The Beauty Chasers to in That whole Pursuit of Beauty. And that looks like. I think that's awesome. Catherine I, I've never actually thought of beholding beauty or beauty.
00;37;38;20 - 00;38;04;06
Jha I think my, my personality is sort of, that way that I do turn my eyes to beauty very easily. But I love this idea, and I'm even picturing maybe our family on our WhatsApp chat. You know, maybe we have a week where we behold beauty and we just snap pictures of beautiful things to each other.
00;38;04;08 - 00;38;37;07
I've never really intentionally practiced this, but I. I would love to try that. It seems really life giving. The you you, quote. It's I don't know who at the beginning, but it struck me we all need bread and beauty. Yes. Like, is it that, essential. Right. And so I, I'm interested in this. At one point I did, contemplate for a couple of weeks, Swedish, practice of sugar.
00;38;37;10 - 00;39;10;02
Where it's just, cozy and being present, lighting a candle. Just it's it's very similar idea, but, I think this takes it all the more further. Can I ask you a question? It is the WhatsApp chat. That's family. Us. Are you calling us your family? No. She was actually calling. My dear, oh, dear. Oh, I was quick because I posted some beauty pictures in the WhatsApp chat and I was like, oh, so yeah, no, no, I guess it was my family.
00;39;10;03 - 00;39;32;05
Okay. So I can be saying, I mean, my family is like all my different family. Oh well yes. Well I, I'd say, oh I have to post some pictures now. Oh my goodness. Well that's what I was doing in our WhatsApp chats which is wonderful but sharing beauty. But even that the deliberate choice to share. But she like my son bringing it back.
00;39;32;12 - 00;39;53;24
Beauty connects us and even a practical piece of having something like here we're coming up to New Year, but buying an art calendar. My son purchased me a pull a day Art of work of the day calendar, and I get to just in this year collecting beauty. I've been cutting off the ones that I particularly love and gluing them into my journal via the month.
00;39;53;26 - 00;40;18;27
So did you have, I'm with you. Val, I think I've been given the gift of, of seeing beauty pretty I'll say easily. And knowing how much it feeds me like it's, it's just I, I just know it. And so I look for it and it and it and it arrives. And if I, if I feel myself getting worn out, I would go.
00;40;19;00 - 00;40;38;13
Previously they cut down my tree. It's so sad. But to my, this favorite tree that I have, on part two, Lizzie Beach, the same beach we share a beach. Well, my, my beach suit. That's your beach? Well, I can't do that beach. I have a new beach. Okay. Okay, good. Well, there are so many beaches in the world.
00;40;38;16 - 00;41;03;27
But, but one of the things I used to do there was stare at the bark of this tree that I would lean against, and just the paths I find bark absolutely spectacular. But that's not even the story. I want to tell, because all I wanted to say was that, like beauty shows up, which I think is beautiful, that beauty shows up and it's so like, I that's such a beautiful.
00;41;03;28 - 00;41;27;06
It's what a beautiful thing that beauty shows up. It's so sorry. It's really beautiful. But I have this moment where I remember being struck that, wow, I found that beautiful. And and it was it was weird. And it was my moving day, was a very difficult day, because I was moving into a condo from my broken marriage.
00;41;27;09 - 00;41;54;02
And I got out of the elevator, and it was a long haul to my apartment. And as I got out of the elevator, I could hear friends that still in my condo, at the end of the hall, talking and laughing. And where do you think she wants that? And no, move that over here. And they had propped the door open because they were helping me move.
00;41;54;04 - 00;42;08;14
And I arrived home, you know, 17 people in my condo helping me move in. But before I got there, I stood in the hall and just listened.
00;42;08;16 - 00;42;11;04
Yes.
00;42;11;06 - 00;42;38;14
And beheld it? Yes. Yes, yes. And I thought it was just the most beautiful thing. Yes, I ever heard. I talked earlier about, you know, generosity and how beautiful generosity is. And we never know. Some people came for an hour or two hours, I guess. Side note give where you can give. Yeah. Be generous where you can be generous because you you have no idea how much that touches and brings beauty into somebody's life.
00;42;38;14 - 00;43;02;23
It was such a key moment for me. Yeah. And one of the most beautiful acts. You know, I remember just standing and listening. Yes. And beauty. I thank you for saying that piece, too. Like, I have, like, never miss an opportunity. I said to pay a compliment and like, seeing people like I'd love that or but never miss an opportunity to give beauty.
00;43;02;26 - 00;43;28;23
Right. That giving of ourselves is so much where beauty is found. And beauty really is a both. And that's where to try to pull all that slippery mystery together of that piece. The beginning and knowing within that that we are invited to the pursuit and we are also chased by beauty. Beauty shows up and takes us by surprise.
00;43;28;25 - 00;43;55;09
That story to just feels like again beauty was home. Yeah. Wow. Yes. Yeah. It's almost like there's like a smell of apple pie coming your way. Right. Yeah. Because beauty yeah is the reminder of the garden and that's. Well, that's actually really good transition because beauty guides us back to ourselves and beauty guides us back to God.
00;43;55;12 - 00;44;17;17
Beauty guides us back to each other. It is that place of coming home to ourselves, home to him, home to relationship. And when I was drawing this together were in November and I was, it was actually on Remembrance Day, and I was saying, God, there's so much to say. What? What do I even say? Where do I even begin on this?
00;44;17;17 - 00;44;45;02
Topics that I feel like I've been pursuing and only touching the tip of the iceberg. And he just kind of whispered, the place we end is where we start. Okay, so that's where my thoughts were, because to be rejuvenated by beauty is really to remember, to remember the garden, to remember when God looked at all that he had made and said that it was good, very good.
00;44;45;02 - 00;45;09;00
Which is tov, which also means beautiful. It's beauty is that ancient whisper of tov. It means the beauty of creation and created, including ourselves. And so I just want to wrap up with what God brought back to my heart there with remember for you, each of you, but for you listeners. So there was one time when I was shopping for a winter coat, waiting for my husband to join me.
00;45;09;02 - 00;45;29;08
He had parked the car and I heard in my heart and I hear it is words. I heard my heart, a familiar voice, do something for me. And I thought, what do you say when God asks you a question like that? Right when you recognize that voice? And I said, like, I'm standing in a mall, it's like, well, like, did he want me to find someone to talk to?
00;45;29;08 - 00;45;52;05
Didn't buy lunch for someone at the food court? Some random act of kindness? Like anything, right? Like when God says, do something for me, like hello saved my life. So my only response that I could offer was, of course, and his reply rattled my world. It would have been easier at that moment to empty my bank account. And he just said, remember, you are beautiful.
00;45;52;08 - 00;46;33;21
Beauty stops you in your tracks. And that did. Listener, do you find it hard to believe that you are beautiful? God feels differently and he invites you to remember and to live into his invitation of your unique design to be you to the full, beautiful. Oh yes, the world is waiting for the beauty. You and I will bring him and speaking of bringing beauty to the world, Catherine, our beautiful Catherine, would you like to give our listeners a peek into our next conversation?
00;46;33;21 - 00;46;55;04
Because beauty and what you've alluded to walk very much hand in as well as me. Yes. I'm so excited about talking about rejuvenation by Joy. And I feel like I've been on the edge of my seat, like every episode going like, what are we going to be? The echoes? What are they? Because there are so many interconnections in all of this.
00;46;55;06 - 00;47;22;23
And, yeah, just so excited. So come back to our next episode when we're going to be talking about rejuvenation by Joy. We're going to talk about what it is, if there's misperceptions about it, what fuels it, what depletes it, are we all the same, like you're saying, are unique design, right? Do we have joy styles? And what completes our joy and how can I be part of that?
00;47;22;23 - 00;47;47;09
So we use the word all the time. I love your concept of slippery because I think that joy is one of those things too. So we're going to unpack joy. We're going to have joy. It's going to be some joy. Exactly. Yeah. So come next episode, you should see her wiggling in her chair. Right? I'm so I couldn't sleep to like, the two nights ago because I was just like, I felt like I was going to unpack something.
00;47;47;09 - 00;47;56;27
Yes. In each of the episodes. And he unpacks with a bow and the unfolding, like, what are you about to do? God, I'm so excited. So yeah, stay tuned. Join us.