While my heart struggled to stay open, I heard a mockingbird
We all have moments when life seems unfair or frightening. Life happens, and we respond. Often from habit, and a desire to protect ourselves from the fallout.
Yesterday I heard something spoken that sent me into spasms of worry and fear. I felt my stomach muscles contract, my shoulders rising up around my ears, and a sadness I couldn’t contain.
At first, I tried to stay focused on a project that was taking hours to complete. We’d finally taken down the storm windows and this was the first day our windows were open to the sound of wind moving through the leaves and the birds singing.
When I heard the mockingbird, I stopped everything. I just listened. I noticed my breath. My muscles started to relax, my shoulders dropped, and I found myself at peace in that moment.
It was as though I stepped out of time and space and was caught up in something untouched by the news, by responsibilities.
It was a moment of deep rest.
After a few minutes I noticed my attention had drifted. I had to make an effort to keep returning to this gift of beauty. I know if I hadn’t made that slight effort, I would have just gotten in the car and kept driving to who knows where.
Noticing the beauty of this mockingbird's song reminded me that being open to beauty isn’t accidental or just pleasing to the senses.
Beauty is nourishment. It’s not just decoration or luxury. It’s a terrible loss when we’re so consumed with fears or doubts that we just put our heads down and force ourselves to get on with our lives.
When that happens, we ignore the gift of our senses and become more insulated than ever. We become trapped inside our looping thoughts and difficult emotions.
Yet, this is exactly when beauty can lift our spirits and reorient us. When we let ourselves notice beauty—in whatever form—it brings us back into direct contact with being alive.
We’re reminded that life is more than just survival, more than productivity, more than endless information and scrolling or checking our phones.
If you stopped right now and paid attention to what your senses are sharing with you, what would you notice? The color of the sky? The smell of lilacs coming through the window? A bit of music? Beams of sunlight falling on your table?
Even if you’re already at work, there are still opportunities for you to stop and recalibrate. Do you have fresh flowers on your desk? Photograph of people or places that have touched your heart? A memento of a place that lifted your spirits?
One of the gifts of beauty is that it helps us remember ourselves - the part of us that is a living, breathing soul who still can laugh, make jokes, hug a friend, and hold our truths when life is harsh and demanding.
We can be buffeted by life and yet still find a place within ourselves that responds to music, art, or the evening sky and find peace there.
It’s a reminder that who we are is more than our jobs, our families, our countries. We have within ourselves the capacity to stay connected to the gifts of life. Beneath all the striving and noise of daily life, we can open ourselves to beauty’s reminder that there is still mystery, meaning and joy around us.
When the world is in crisis, we don’t need to be in crisis, too. Beauty expands our capacity to remain fully human during difficult times. Beauty will give us the strength and courage to continue to participate in life instead of withdrawing from it.
Art and beauty come to our rescue exactly when life feels unbearable. This is how we refuse spiritual collapse and take heart. You might even say that intentionally seeking beauty is an act of resistance against psychologically and emotionally flattening ourselves.
We don’t have to live inside brutality or remain preoccupied with staying vigilant, productive or on high alert. Creating or participating in beauty is probably one of the oldest ways to transform despair into hope.
Not because beauty entirely erases our pain, but because it allows us to let those feelings move through us instead of becoming hardened into numbness and lack of feeling.
Beauty will always keep trying to reach us. Will you stop and say yes?
Yesterday I heard something spoken that sent me into spasms of worry and fear. I felt my stomach muscles contract, my shoulders rising up around my ears, and a sadness I couldn’t contain.
At first, I tried to stay focused on a project that was taking hours to complete. We’d finally taken down the storm windows and this was the first day our windows were open to the sound of wind moving through the leaves and the birds singing.
When I heard the mockingbird, I stopped everything. I just listened. I noticed my breath. My muscles started to relax, my shoulders dropped, and I found myself at peace in that moment.
It was as though I stepped out of time and space and was caught up in something untouched by the news, by responsibilities.
It was a moment of deep rest.
After a few minutes I noticed my attention had drifted. I had to make an effort to keep returning to this gift of beauty. I know if I hadn’t made that slight effort, I would have just gotten in the car and kept driving to who knows where.
Noticing the beauty of this mockingbird's song reminded me that being open to beauty isn’t accidental or just pleasing to the senses.
Beauty is nourishment. It’s not just decoration or luxury. It’s a terrible loss when we’re so consumed with fears or doubts that we just put our heads down and force ourselves to get on with our lives.
When that happens, we ignore the gift of our senses and become more insulated than ever. We become trapped inside our looping thoughts and difficult emotions.
Yet, this is exactly when beauty can lift our spirits and reorient us. When we let ourselves notice beauty—in whatever form—it brings us back into direct contact with being alive.
We’re reminded that life is more than just survival, more than productivity, more than endless information and scrolling or checking our phones.
If you stopped right now and paid attention to what your senses are sharing with you, what would you notice? The color of the sky? The smell of lilacs coming through the window? A bit of music? Beams of sunlight falling on your table?
Even if you’re already at work, there are still opportunities for you to stop and recalibrate. Do you have fresh flowers on your desk? Photograph of people or places that have touched your heart? A memento of a place that lifted your spirits?
One of the gifts of beauty is that it helps us remember ourselves - the part of us that is a living, breathing soul who still can laugh, make jokes, hug a friend, and hold our truths when life is harsh and demanding.
We can be buffeted by life and yet still find a place within ourselves that responds to music, art, or the evening sky and find peace there.
It’s a reminder that who we are is more than our jobs, our families, our countries. We have within ourselves the capacity to stay connected to the gifts of life. Beneath all the striving and noise of daily life, we can open ourselves to beauty’s reminder that there is still mystery, meaning and joy around us.
When the world is in crisis, we don’t need to be in crisis, too. Beauty expands our capacity to remain fully human during difficult times. Beauty will give us the strength and courage to continue to participate in life instead of withdrawing from it.
Art and beauty come to our rescue exactly when life feels unbearable. This is how we refuse spiritual collapse and take heart. You might even say that intentionally seeking beauty is an act of resistance against psychologically and emotionally flattening ourselves.
We don’t have to live inside brutality or remain preoccupied with staying vigilant, productive or on high alert. Creating or participating in beauty is probably one of the oldest ways to transform despair into hope.
Not because beauty entirely erases our pain, but because it allows us to let those feelings move through us instead of becoming hardened into numbness and lack of feeling.
Beauty will always keep trying to reach us. Will you stop and say yes?