Beauty and Wonder! -- Blog Post 1

Perception stimulated the poem Wonderment last week while driving through southwestern Wisconsin. Fondly known as the Driftless Area, land missed by the last glacier, a rolling countryside of coulees with an abundance of spring fed trout streams. The drive led me toward …. here let the poem explain! 

Wonderment!

This body drives,

Through Richland Center,

Turns onto Highway 56

Towards Viroqua,

The continual questing,

Seen through 

Windshield

As black paved road

Winds over

Around hills,

Past fields of corn

Grown green,

Forest covered steeps,

Gravity carved valleys,

Conducts

Sparkling waters

Toward Oceanic dreams;

This beginners mind,

Rides to crest another rise,

Transcends the known,

Rolls down silence

Into profound being,

Where wonder

Resides

At home.

The visual stimulated perception, aroused informed emotion to produce the word “Wonderment.” With that word plus associated feeling I wrote the first draft of the poem. How well does the poem convey my experience to the reader? Not being you I do not know. I wish I had taken more pictures to illustrate and underline the poem. But only much later conceived of using this poem and experience for my first blog post.  

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Writing as The Duchess, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford coined this recent variation in the 19th century. The saying has several implications: First that beauty is subjective; Second that the eye perceives that which is beautiful. The eye is the organ of sight but interpretation of the visual takes place in the mind or brain. Is the perception always subjective; meaning always a learned personal evaluation or does there exist an archetypal template in the psyche that informs, provides a place to register the perception “Beautiful?” View the following pictures notice your reaction to the images. 

                                         

How do you perceive the pictures? Did they move you in anyway? Which one(s) most engaged you? Walk through your home. Look at your walls. What pictures have you hung there as decorations? What sayings? Why did you chose them? Do they still evoke the same feelings? Do they serve as reminders of something important to you? For example a gift from my wife hangs in my bedroom, a picture-poster of a stream flowing over rock with red autumn leaves. At the bottom is the word “Serenity”  below a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nothing Can Bring You Peace But Yourself.”A great reminder and cue that hangs above my chest of drawers. Which means I have a chance to seriously look at the picture everyday, be reminded that I can bring more serenity into my being! 

In truth many things that hang in plain sight tend to get ignored or taken for granted over time. The poster’s glanced at, seen, but do I always take a moment to contemplate the message? This blog serves as a reminder to myself even more than you to consider the importance of visual and written cues that help turn my thoughts to the spiritual path I’m on. The rolling landscape of the Driftless Area unfolding as I drove toward Viroqua brought me into the present moment gave me an opportunity to touch that inner most part of my being that Wonders and recognizes Beauty in this world we all share. There must be a psychological need to see and revel in beauty.

During times when crisis took over my life everything seemed dark, my sense of humor dried up, the ability to see  beauty seemed to have died. Meditation, walks in nature, developing friendships with fellow travelers brought back my sense of wonder. Most days now I walk around in Wonderment and gratitude for this experience called my life. Yet I don’t ignore what is ugly such as George Floyd’s death. We have an inner part in the psyche too that reacts and recoils at the ugly. That too must be an archetype, a gift from a mysterious energy source. That reaction can lead to working toward a better world and society. For as I seek to be the best human I can be, directly or indirectly I play a role too in the betterment of society. That urge led me to write The Waste Land Revisited! A book length poem published as an E Book, focused on raising awareness about Global Warming.Which also warned of Pandemic. 

Peace be with you my friends take time to feed your soul today. Seek your best, notice what is beautiful, that helps you feel the sense of wonder that brought you out of the womb to be here and now today! 

I’ll close with another picture. A mural seen in a parking lot in Viroqua where I parked to meet friends at the Driftless Cafe! Thank You for joining me!