Beauty at the Burgerland Roundabout

Burgerland Roundabout

“In a sense, all the contemporary crises can be reduced to a crisis about the nature of beauty.

The media are becoming the global mirror and the shows tend to enshrine the ugly as the normal standard.  Beauty is mostly forgotten and made to seem naïve and romantic.

The blindness of property development creates rooms, buildings and suburbs which lack grace and mystery.  Socially this influences the atmosphere in the community.  It also results in the degradation of the environment that we are turning more and more of our beautiful earth into a wasteland.

Much of the stress and emptiness that haunts us can be traced back to our lack of attention to beauty.  Internally, the mind becomes coarse and dull if it remains unvisited by images and thoughts which hold the radiance of beauty.

Beauty offers us an invitation to order, coherence and unity.  When these needs are met, the soul feels at home in the world.”

–          John O’Donohue from Beauty The Invisible Embrace

Racing towards Jidhafs the other morning, I was frustrated when I missed the green light.  But as I slowed I saw this new mural painted on the side of the house.

Instantly my heart lifted.   No longer did I need to hurry.  I was surprised how how peaceful I felt as I waited for the light to change.  And I was struck by the power of Beauty.

Thank you Romantic Moments for bringing some Beauty to the Burgerland roundabout.

And thank you John O’Donohue for so eloquently articulating why we need Beauty in our lives.  His book Beauty The Invisible Embrace : Rediscovering the True Source of Compassion Serenity and Hope is “a gentle, urgent call to awaken.”

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Don’t Go to Sleep This Night

August Full Moon over Iowa Corn Fields, 2011

Don’t Go to Sleep This Night

don’t go to sleep
this night
one night is worth
a hundred thousand souls

the night is generous
it can give you
a gift of the full moon
it can bless your soul
with endless treasure

every night when you feel
the world is unjust
never ending grace
descends from the sky
to soothe your souls

the night is not crowded like the day
the night is filled with eternal love
take this night
tight in your arms
as you hold a sweetheart

remember the water of life
is in the dark caverns
don’t be like a big fish
stopping the life’s flow
by standing in the mouth of a creek

during a night
the blessed prophet
broke all the idols and
God remained alone
to give equally to all
an endless love.

                              Translated by Nader Khalili
                              Rumi, Fountain of Fire

A Bahraini friend sent this poem to me today.


A Fleeting Glimpse of Sky Walkers

Sky Walkers in the Late Morning. Her head, eyes, nose and mouth are easy to see on her long tall body.There were 4 of them but 2 disappeared before I get my camera. It was so bright I could only point and click.

The body is your only home in the universe.

It is your house of belonging here in the world.  It is a very sacred temple.  To spend time in silence before the mystery of your body brings you toward wisdom and holiness.

Your body is in essence a crowd of different members who work in harmony to make your belonging in the world possible.  We should avoid the false dualism that separates the soul from the body.  The soul is not simply within the body hidden somewhere within its recess.  The truth is rather the converse.  Your body is in the soul, and the soul suffuses you completely.

Therefore all around you there is a secret and beautiful soul-light.

John O’Donohue

from Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom pg 48-49

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