Why not make it beautiful?
A preface and invitation...
Dear reader,
I extend to you this tender invitation,
one that welcomes you into a new inquiry,
an inquiry that aims to explore an amalgamation of beautiful human things,
soft things and harder things too—
Goodbyes and beauty, perspectives versus perceptions, transitions and arriving on purpose, personal rhythms, timing and hard conversations…
Would you care to share some of your thoughts?
In honour of this new work I am forming, I posed you a question here (earlier this week) and I was flooded generously with the language of your experiences…
What happens in your body when you witness beauty? I asked
I gathered a beautiful collection of words from the things that you said and it’s here, from this place, that this inquiry officially begins…
You said:
…An exhale, tears, feelings of warmth, an urge to participate, involuntary reaction—singing and dancing, goosebumps and deep breaths. A visceral experience, feelings of home and wholeness and purpose. Stillness and presence, tingling and softness. Peace and silence, language and dialogue that exists beyond words. An opening, a widening, spaciousness in the lungs. A need to behold it or capture it or grasp it, refreshment, renewing, fears fading. Closeness to God, overwhelming majesty, awe and wholeness.
With repetition, you said;
Wholeness.
Wholeness.
Wholeness.
When I see beauty, I am home. I feel whole.
I ask that you reflect on this before we explore the deeper questions and the middles of this inquiry…
Part two of ‘Why not make it beautiful?” to follow, shortly.
I’ll explore in more depth as to why I have titled this inquiry such a beautiful string of words, thanks to a dear friend who pays to read this love letter even though she is privy to my torturous and verbal need to process.
Meanwhile, I invite you to share your thoughts.
Your experiences, shared here or in the comments below will be collected much like the treasures I gather during my weekly opshop hunts. Your insights always generously give body to these explorations and for this, I am so grateful…
Love (and caught flowers).
Tess
xo
I have come to realise that grief is a beautiful emotion. The whole world has become technicolour, I have become Dorothy in a world that is no longer my making. It is an emotion that has me realising that all is possible, and that fear is a wisp of smoke and nothing more. Of course I feel the deep cuts, the rawness of it all but it is in that rawness and vulnerability, I sense how alive every second is. Every second is colours dashed across a blank canvas, the first bird song or the smell of freshly baked bread. Making it beautiful is the lesson.
Darling heart
I adore your inquiries .
I feel like I was born to make it beautiful . A purpose woven deep in to my blood , bones and cells . ( I know you feel this too ) . It feels ancestral and ethereal . I was created to create beauty .
To experience all parts of life and to paint the story in what ever way feels alive for others to FEEL something . Connection at the core of it .
As artists it is our innate job to transmute the unfathomable into beauty . For others to digest it in a way that has their heart wide open . Heartbreakingly beautiful . Softening , to see their own humanity written in the scripts . Some will be ready some will not .
I could write for days about this
But now it’s time for me to pick up the pen and write by candlelight as my daughter sleeps .
Xxx