Tag: Beauty

Gently, Gently

by Ebb Then Flood

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Flowers do not need to persuade you of their beauty.

They just sit there being their own damn sweet selves, and we are inspired.

We are taught to be assertive in order to persuade someone, commence or change something. Assertiveness is seen as a modern day virtue.

However, the individuals who have had the greatest effect on me were the gentle sort. Those who didn’t try to convince me of the right way to do something, or how I should be. They were good listeners as much as anything, and carried themselves by soft action.

Being gentle is hard(excuse the pun).

I have had to go through a bit of a re-wiring process this last year or two. Rough circumstances have knocked a few sharp edges off, but if the school of hard knocks is your only teacher, you just get worn down and eroded away at some point.

You can’t be gentle without first being easier and softer on yourself.

Berating yourself for every f**k up you make, or have made, does not make you better or treat others more kindly. The opposite in fact.

So, just go a bit easier on yourself, petal….you’re alright really.

 

God In Segments

by Ebb Then Flood

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The view up to a stunning vaulted ceiling in England’s York Minster.

Justifiably lauded for its architecture, it was the complex symmetry of it all that left me dazzled.

Like this segmented design ,radiating out from the centre of the ceiling like a star, or a flower, then falling down smoothly to enfold the equally beautiful arched windows.

I am a bit of a sucker for symmetry, as some pictures elsewhere on this blog will attest.

As a religious house it is well nigh perfect.

But, there was the nagging thought in my mind that it was a grand, and failed, attempt – it was made by imperfect humans after all ! – to capture a universal spirituality that is at times:

unpredictable,

jagged,

asymmetrical,

not compartmentalised,

indefinable…

 

 

 

Harmony

by Ebb Then Flood

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I think we all want harmony – within things and between them ,as with this view of tropical flowers floating in water – and between people and within themselves. Peacefulness and inner beauty ,that sort of thing, you know?

But maybe it’s too much to ask. Some things cropped up today and I wonder why some people do not appear to want that at all. They seem to want to find fault, sow discord and generally wreck things that don’t need wrecking.

Inner disharmony is at root of this malaise. I know that state at times (we all do), but I try not to want it, and certainly not the destruction that follows.

Anyway, I have no real answers to that conundrum today, but in the meantime, have some beautiful blossoms as an aiming point!

 

 

 

Looking Over Achilles Point: A Simple Luxury

by Ebb Then Flood

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Achilles Point is one of Auckland’s  many cool vantage points and one of the places I go just to look out over the rocks ,reefs ,waves ,islands,and the constantly changing horizon.

Beautiful.

Soulful.

A simple luxury ,if that is not a contradiction in terms.