Holiday Beauty

Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Both of our grown children to celebrate with...enjoying being with us as much as we enjoy them  them...sister and partner for a game of Hearts...happiness at the warm sound of a friend's voice on the phone confirming their safe return from a trip in the snow to Yosemite...aroma of cinnamon rolls...peaceful quiet in the air as a result of industry slowing nearly to a halt for one day a year...running again at Rancho up hills and down...recognition and enthusiasm in my mom's voice on the phone...cards, photos, letters, messages, and family phone calls that make us all feel more connected...the fun of giving gifts and anticipating reactions...rain, glorious rain! 

Heal the World

You might wonder how Junior High Students and Finding Beauty can come together. Normally in the same paragraph, I would not put the same two together.  To me, beauty is not frenetic.

Today, my junior high chorus students sang two concerts, one in which two students could not control their inappropriate behavior and the second in which the same two could.

I find beauty in that simple fact: that 12- and 13-year-old students can in fact control their impulsive behaviors enough to come together to sing.  Also, in getting to know them a little bit more and sharing a little bit of their lives; getting them to reach out beyond their incredibly small self-bubble to a larger world in which they are not front and center.  Heal the World!  Thank you, Michael Jackson, for a wonderful, inspiring song. 

And thank you to my friend Gail and my husband and daughter for attending a junior high school music concert.

Many Paths Cross

For months now, I've been thinking about the topic of finding beauty in life in as many places as possible.  Finding beauty is what motivates me every day, so perhaps the quest for beauty motivates others as well.  Once I started to think about it, I discovered that I do this constantly.  Not so much surface beauty, though a lot is visual since we humans depend heavily on the sense of vision.  But also personal beauty--kindness, compassion, companionship, rational discussion, shared projects, love for children, adventure, and discovery.  My three deepest passions are: music, the environment, and children.

Sharing beauty is why I enjoy music, friends, family, travel, eating, gardening, cycling, running, sailing, birdwatching and everything I choose to do!

Of course, music, my profession, can't be shown in images on a computer. I may figure out how to share some of my favorite music when I'm more familiar with this blogging tool.

And love is also not so easy to show in this medium, but I will try, if not in images, in words. In the meantime, as a modest start, I would like to share some images from my life that I find beautiful:

 Celestial sculpture from Luna Sea in Pescadero, an anniversary present to each other

Salad made for a dinner party with our closest friends, and almost entirely from our garden

Exotic butterfly, exhibited at the Museum of Natural History in New York

Sunflowers growing in our back garden last summer 

And today, reading a Mother Earth News blog, I found this: "An absence of beauty often indicates an absence of health. What if we set a new standard in which every human, rich or poor, has access to beauty and to the restorative qualities ...?"

I think I understand why I feel compelled to find beauty.  Maybe it's a path toward more fairness, richness, happiness, and health in the world for more people than just me.  I hope so.  Please join me on this journey and let's share the beauty we encounter.