Posts Tagged: beauty and ugliness

“Lively and Lovely Stubbornness”

On November 20, 2020 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Phil. 4:8, English Standard Version)

Ugliness and death are stubborn and hard to eradicate.  Indeed, unless your name is God, ugliness and death probably can’t be eradicated.  But then, beauty and life are stubborn too.

This morning I was doing my “3-Minute Retreat” from Loyola Press.  Their retreats are free, daily, and excellent.  They have a pictorial background, some meditative music, a brief scripture, a couple of short, thought-provoking questions, and a closing suggested prayer.  And yes, you really can do them in about three minutes.  I usually take longer, but then that’s me.

The background picture this morning was as helpful to me as the words and music.  Maybe that’s because I paid attention to the picture.

It showed a tightly louvered, metallic-looking fence with a couple of flowers growing through a very narrow crack in the fence.  “Beauty and life are stubborn!” I said out loud.

And as a matter of fact, beauty and life are stubborn.  Good thing!  Because obviously so are ugliness and death.

We need to acknowledge the ugliness and death.  It won’t go away if we simply ignore it.

But we also need to focus on the beauty and the life.  As I am writing this post, the sun is coming up.  There is a lovely breeze, and it is already 50.  It is supposed to get up into the mid sixties today.  I will rake leaves and take them to the compost pile.  Then, I’m going to go for a ride on the Little Miami Bike Trail.

Beauty and life will be one of my mantras for the day.  You can use it too.  It’s not copyrighted!

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