What are some everyday things you find beautiful?
I guess this might be considered a spinoff of the How We View Ourselves Thread, but anyways, over the past few months I have begun to take notice and enjoy life's simpler pleasures. Finding something beautiful in everyday life. I try to stay informed about what's going on in the world, but all too often reading the news is a rather depressing daily activity. So, everyday I make it a point to identify one thing, or event I find uniquely beautiful. Then I can tell myself that despite all the depressing news stories that are reported there are this infinite amount of these beautiful I like to hope a majority if not all of the population is enjoying on a daily basis (I know for a fact that isn't true, but I like to think so anyway).
One particular event that has stuck with me happened last week. My campus is in the middle of an urban area, so rarely is there a time in the day when there aren't cars or sirens or something making noise. Except later at night during the week. At about 2 in the morning I was frustrated with thesis and decided to go for a run. I ran up to the track without seeing/hearing a single person, car, or anything. It was just myself and my thoughts. It had cooled down significantly so there was that condensation/steam stuff (definitely not a science person, but you get my point) coming off the ground being illumniated by the lights around campus in the distance, but the track itself and the fields around the track were unlit. I did a full track workout in the cold, dark night all by myself without any interruptions of any kind. Just the sounds of an occasional car passing. When I finished I just felt a great rush come over me. Almost as if it was confirming what I believed that if you take a second and just observe the world around you in your own way you realize how beautiful it really is.
I don't know, there's a lot of these little things I notice on a daily basis that really make me smile. Even though they may seem insignificant to other people. Does anybody else notice these little things?
I constantly find beauty in most of the natural world, but also in silence (and quietness) because I notice so much more that way--and I find beauty in my children and am always in awe that bookpapa and I helped create them (they create a lot of their own beauty now).
Sunrise, sunset, raindrops, leaves, trees, blades of grass, fields of corn, plowed fields, animals, spider webs, clouds, colors, fruits, vegetables, dirt....
The list goes on and on....
Thank you for this thread. I appreciate it!
A nice big dump in my toilet bowl after a long day of constipation.
I didn't know vegans got constipated. I can't remember the last time I had THAT problem! :P
Since moving to the mountains from Florida, I swear I can't leave my house without smiling at all the fall colors in the mountains. I grew up in Ohio, but I think I never even noticed or cared about the trees/seasons changing. After being without seasons for so long, now I just appreciate it so much and count my lucky stars for being able to finally move here. The people growing up here just don't realize how beautiful it is-they take the mountains and all their beauty for grantid it seems.
( do mods get to give brownie points? ;))
Yes. And when you collect enough points you can trade them in for actual brownies.
Wow, you are all amazing!!
senoir couples holding hands.
my puppy scratching at my door to wake me up in time for school.
my mother. :)
anything that's the color purple.
and of course... every single one of you.
Watching the full moon rise on a clear frosty night through the bare branches of one of the huge old trees in the churchyard (a few yards from our house); the view from the top of the hill behind our house. I may have lived here for 21 years but it still makes me gasp; the sight of any (better still - all) of my girls exiting the railway station doorway and knowing I've got them home for a few days
( do mods get to give brownie points? ;))
Yes. And when you collect enough points you can trade them in for actual brownies.
Fudgy or cake-like?
I am really enjoying the leaves right now. There are piles and piles right outside my apartment.
Actually the other day on my walk home from work I picked up all the leaves that looked particularly beautiful.
Ones with interesting coloring or neat veins or interesting shapes.
By the time I got home I had too many to carry.
It was so much fun! I am sure people wondered why I was picking up leaves, but I was so immersed in it that I didn't care.
When was the last time you really looked at a fruit? Take a mango, for instance...the shadings of colour. An orange, the texture (not to mention the smell).
That's a good one too! Fruit is so beautiful! Like pomegranates. And all the different types of berries. I was drinking some kind of berry juice (blackberry?) the other day, and the color was so deep and rich, and I thought how beautiful it would be if you dyed something with it. I was wearing a white scarf at the time and I really wanted to pour the whole glass onto it. But I refrained. ;D
Nighttime with the moon & stars visible through the trees. Laughter of friends. Steam rising from the ground in the pale golden glow of morning. A freshly baked cupcake topped with a decorative swirl of chocolate frosting. Music, either meaningful or poignant.
I could go on, but after that my list veers sharply to the R & X rated. heh
this thread itself is incredible... beautiful.
here's my contribution: sunlight on water or through stained glass. the smell of fall. leaves. deep conversation. something baking in the oven. sipping tea out on a porch, veranda, or patio. a cat purring on my lap. twinkling christmas lights. my mom, my hero.
and vegweb. hugs and kisses to you all :-*
Okay, to be a little more specific about the beauty I find in the natural world...
Sunset viewed through the bare branches of oak trees in winter--black lace.
In late afternoon in the summer, there is a brief time period when everything is bathed in a golden light--I've always called it "the golden period." There is also a short period of time in the very early morning in the summer when the sky is the color of denim. It has become a "denim sky." Those two times of day are my favorite parts of summer.
There is one particular spot on the way to work where there are a bunch of trees and the overall effect is just "green trees." But, the landscape there holds mists/fogs and when it does, the mist gets between the trees and shows them up as individuals. Not a very pretty description of a beautiful phenomenon.
Parent wrens feed their nestlings. Also, parent birds of any sort still feeding their "teenagers" who look too grown to be begging food from mama/papa.
Wild bunnies hopping close to our "observatory" (closed in porch) to nibble the weeds near the patio. Actually, any wild critters that find their way to our habitat. I consider their appearance in the habitat not just beautiful but a privilege for me to see. I am honored by their presence.
Baking on a fall morning while still wearing my jammies and sleep socks.
That'll do for a start. ;)
A nice big dump in my toilet bowl after a long day of constipation.
I didn't know vegans got constipated. I can't remember the last time I had THAT problem! :P
I don't have that problem either. I was just getting ill reading all this corny crap so I thought I'd throw in something different.
One thing I miss is a particular greenish grey sky when it's been raining and starts to clear up in the late afternoon just before sunset...light on one side of the sky, and the beautiful green-grey on the other.
And leaves. I live in S. Spain where leaves just fall off, they don't turn colours. And of course no oak or maple trees anyway. They just chopped all our elms last year. D*mn Dutch Elm Disease! :'(
Soooooo, ShaolinBunny....you're saying that the only thing you find beautiful in your everyday life is a dump in the toilet bowl? I'm so sorry you haven't seen some of the beauty in everyday things some of us have seen. More power to you for finding beauty in your dump.
Soooooo, ShaolinBunny....you're saying that the only thing you find beautiful in your everyday life is a dump in the toilet bowl? I'm so sorry you haven't seen some of the beauty in everyday things some of us have seen. More power to you for finding beauty in your dump.
Awwww....Bookmama! (God I love the Bookfamily! I think you guys should start a band...like the Partridge family...that'd be cool! I know I'd pay good money to come see you in concert! :))
You know I see beauty in many things. Now you're just baiting me to share some of them (uhh...mods?!)...can't you see I'm trying to be contrary...can't I be left alone in my contrariness?! All this g*ddamn sentimental bullshit. I have dozens of journals full of this type of schlock.
All right. Dammit. You people do me in all the time (especially the Bookfamily...they're just too damn nice...I'm waiting for the day when one of them tells someone to f*ck off). Here's a quick one...hope this satisfies you sappy mushists...
I find ineffable beauty in...the unvisited dark corners of the forest...the idea of nature existing and moving of its own accord, beyond the presence of humans. The reminder that we are only brief visitors on an exquisitely beautiful planet. I'm not waiting for the afterlife...this planet is my heaven. I love the places where the wolves walk unnoticed. Where wildlife goes about doing what it has done for millions of years before we arrived and decided tools were a good idea. Where you can easily hear a drop of rain fall down from an ancient evergreen. Or the cracking of a branch falling. Distinctly hear the timeless cry of a red-tailed hawk circling above. Listen to the silence that is not silence but a thousand different living entities living, growing, moving, dying...
Now can I go back to enjoying my dump?
Well, gee, SB, thanks for sharing. ;) ::) ;D
( do mods get to give brownie points? ;))
Yes. And when you collect enough points you can trade them in for actual brownies.
Fudgy or cake-like?
;D ;D ;D Fudgy. All the way! Although with my baking skill there's a 50/50 chance of that. ::)
Totally. I love this place.
I saw 3 rainbows this weekend...and we're in a drought. They were all amazing.
Wow, great idea Foofie! I often take time like you do to examine things and am always thankful when I do so. I LOVE so many things that it is hard to begin...
Today: I visited my parents and spent about 3 hours outside smelling the wind while raking leaves. I love picking up a random leaf and examining the veins and feeling every part of it.
Yesterday: I try to swim in the ocean at least once a year. There's nothing as life affirming as swimming in ice cold water while waves wash over your head. I will swim at any time of the year.
Tomorrow: Taking walks outside while it is snowing heavily is a favorite thing of mine to do. Each gust of wind is like a little slap on the face that reminds me that there are plenty of things outside of my control, but are still beautiful and song inducing.
I love vegweb and vegwebbers! Ya'll rock!
Wow, you are all amazing!!
I agree. Lots of meditative and poetic observations articulated in this thread.
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