dearest beauties,
i could write about our hunger for beauty for pages, for years, for decades... and i probably will. this post is a continuation of this beauty feast. i am finding in my research that the under belly of this need for beauty is giving permission to receive the beauty. to buy the flowers, to take the time, to create the altar whether it be peaches on a wood board or sea shells on the book shelf or the book shelf itself can be an altar. we all do this. we nest in this way. we create home in this way. if you look around you will see you have probably created many altars around you. it's something we do, we need this beauty to reflect us, to recall a memory, to rewrite a story, to create an idea, to make room for our dreams. if you are not doing this yet, you might hunger to do it. you feel it when you go to a friends home or family. it feels cozy and you don't know exactly why.
"we must take the time to discover what is beautiful to each of us, beautiful enough that we are willing to protect and cherish it, change our lives; beautiful in the indigenous sense that it is beauty that organizes and gives meaning and purpose to the world." --ruth gender writes in "notes on the need for beauty"
in the creating of altars, taking the stickers off the fruit, placing things in the way that feels good in you... this all gives meaning and purpose to your world, if just, for that moment, that day, that week. there are altars that change up often and others that remain true to the need for longer. this is not about hiring a designer to get the right hue of fabric to match the shades. i love that too. that feels supported and calming to a part of me. that is alignment and connection in another way.
what i am sharing about is intimacy. it's about being quietly daring during the madness that is the schedule, the needs, the noise. it's taking some time to create a cluster of beauty on the dusty shelf above the sink where you might put your ring when you do the dishes. maybe there is soap there and a dirty sponge. better yet the stainless steel scrubber with the scrambled egg stuck in it for days. what we see and what we want to see can be vastly different worlds. that shelf above the sink is your mirror. lets start with putting something there you love. let it reflect who are you. what you want. write words on a piece of paper and put it there with pink tape. ball jar it up with a few herbs. maybe there is always a flower there from the garden. it's not your kids art shelf... that can be in another area of the house. don't get me wrong, i love my kids art AND this is your area. your easil. your cake plate. whatever it is, it's yours so start feeding yourself what you love to see and how you want to be xxxx
here is a quick moment of the shelf about my kitchen sink...