Live with Flair

"We live only to discover beauty. All else is a form of waiting."

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 11:40:31 PST

Today in class, we consider the claims of several poets regarding beauty. Kahlil Gibran claims that "we live only to discover beauty" as if to suggest that nothing else--other than the search for beauty-- matters more to the soul. Sara Teasdale argues that you know you have found beauty because "it makes the heart break," alerting us to the sorrow and longing that accompanies an experience of beauty.

Ken Weber presents that "beauty suspends the desire to be elsewhere." You know you have found a truly beautiful object because you don't want to be anywhere else.

Has this happened for us? Have we encountered truly beautiful things?

Students write about cathedrals, sunsets, oceans, canyons, stars, snowflakes, community, the intricate design of a watch, a musical score, mathematics. We talk about design, symmetry, surprise, mystery, rarity.

The whole world aches with it.

If I haven't found beauty yet today, perhaps I am not searching hard enough.

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Did you encounter beauty today?

Jack Finds True Love

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:35:58 PST

My one-eyed cat, Jack, has found true love.

He's moved from synchronized napping to obvious displays of tender cat affection.

He can't nap without her.

He's come so far: from wounded, broken, unable to meow or purr to true companionship.

It's adorable to watch. Adorable things inspire great delight. They charm. The world needs more adorable moments to charm us back to simple delight.

Cats hugging: a little delight on a cold, heavy morning.

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Did you see something adorable today?

A Pen of One's Own

noreply@blogger.com (Heather) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:49:47 PST

My youngest asks if she can have a pen of her very own. We're standing in the check-out line of the grocery store, and we notice a pack of ball-point pens.

"What would you do with a pen of your own?" I ask.

"I would have so much fun!" she says. "I would write my name one hundred times with my own pen!"

"Yes," I say. "You can have a pen of your own."

I think about all the ways you grow as a person and as a writer. One day, you press the pen to the page, and it begins. It always begins somewhere, even if it's just writing your own name down in ink. This is me, myself, written right here.

It's quiet in the house because a little writer is writing with her own pen.

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Did you have a childhood object that symbolized something so important?