We have dialogues about war, about societal decay and spousal abuse, landfills, collapsed morals & the lack of universal health coverage… I think it’s time to start a dialogue about Beauty.
We have dialogues about war, about societal decay and spousal abuse, landfills, collapsed morals & the lack of universal health coverage… I think it’s time to start talking about Beauty.
What is Beautiful to you? What commands your attention and attracts your sense of awe?
What do you hold so precious that it is always beautiful to you, no matter how it might appear to others?
What does it mean to ‘Walk in Beauty’?
One of the people I most admire in the world always talks about the importance of holding ‘Beauty in the Center’ and I dedicate this conversation to a deeper collective understanding and embodiment of that reality.
I want to use this space to talk about all those things I find beautiful, and explore why I find them so. About how important it is to me to keep Beauty in the conversation, and not relegate her to a shelf of something that ‘would be nice, but isn’t essential’, because she IS essential, in my life, and I believe Beauty is essential in all our lives and in the world today. It seems to me that we need her presence now more than ever, so I want to call her into being & illuminate her as best I can through word and color, image and sound.
As a designer of online communications like websites and blogs, e-zines, online conferences, etc., I’m always fascinated by how far I can go within the limits of my medium, and I don’t believe anyone has yet touched the boundaries of this connective ether-web we share here in cyberspace… This is my pleasure and my passion, dancing simultaneously at the center & on the edges, so I would like to explore Beauty from this perspective, both in this conversation and in my work as it continues to evolve and develop.
From a more personal perspective, I notice that my life is an interwoven play between my art, my career and work in the world, my feelings and thoughts, my current passions and the myriad personal and professional relationships that sustain me. I want to illuminate that interconnection between all my parts here, and not pretend that my professional life is completely separate from my creative explorations or my personal joys and sadnesses.
If you are drawn to this dialogue and want to join me in the sacred play we’ve embarked upon here, I’d love that! Your collaboration is most welcome… and you are welcome to just dip in once in a while and read what others have to say. It’s all good.
Blessings upon you wherever you be,
Amy
Amy, I absolutely LOVE your beauty dialogues and I’ll be popping in often–to read, and no doubt, to speak from time to time. I’m so happy to see both The World Cafe and the Collective Wisdom Initiative linked here. Places dear to my heart. Last year my son and I (and Crossing Press) published a book called Hunab Ku: 77 Sacred Symbols for Balancing Body and Spirit and Dave Potter from the CW site is just about to share some of the beautiful art work Joel did for that book, accessed from their Aesthetics” doorway. So, do check it out.
I read a lot of Rudolf Steiner and will be posting some of his insights on beauty here once I get a few moments to collect his and my thoughts.
But until then, thank you, beautiful woman!!!
Blessings,
Karen
Steiner has said that the heart actually beats differently in response to the beautiful than in response to the ugly…now that I know that, I’m conscious of my heart rate when I look at various images. And after working very hard on a book to help end poverty, I realize my old definitions of what’s “beautiful” and what’s “ugly” have to be revamped. Those sunken, starving eyes have become beautiful to me because they call my heart to beat in synch with theirs.
Karen
Karen,
That expresses so beautifully what came to us all in the first dialogue… that what we love is beautiful, no matter what the outward form. Beauty is not about outward form. Well, not entirely. 🙂
I love your bringing Steiner’s ideas in to this forum, and I love that you are here! Thank you, for all you do and all you are.
Bless,
Amy
Wow, this is a great conversation. I write a “shapeshifting Beauty” eZine, and my partner and I (in the eZine) took several women to work with this idea in Ireland this past summer. My latest book, free online, is a novel called Venus For A Day. In short, my whole conversation these days is about beauty. So THANKS for starting up the conversation here. I’ll pop back! Blessings, Robin
I’ve always connected with Keats, when he wrote:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
If there’s righteousness in the heart, there will be beauty in the character. If there be beauty in the character, there will be harmony in the home. If there is harmony in the home, there will be order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world. – Chinese Proverb