There is a Rightness to Beauty...

There is a rightness to beauty that puts my soul at ease.  Elusive as the definition of "spirit", this feeling that pervades has no words, but is itself a sigh of relief.  In a vista of natural grandeur, or the order of pottery mugs stacked along a tea towel, I feel alignment.
I cannot tell  the name of the mountain range or the types of clouds we saw as the sun was setting on the drive home from NY last night, but I know that I could have traveled four more hours in that alley between the trees piled high with rich green foliage and the sun flooding the cloud line with a golden silhouette that flared to brilliant salmon before settling into a deep quiet purple.   The world was as it should be.  I was as I should be.   Surely I was created to be mute in acknowledgement of such opulence!  And in my kitchen at home I wiped counter tops and washed the teapot and emptied the flower vase...and then stood back and assessed the (momentarily) still life with satisfaction. 

I remember as a teenager talking with an elderly Scotsman at our church about the recent discovery of a flower that grows at such depths in the ocean that divers only viewed it that week.  The species had been blooming for thousands of years and this was the first time any person saw its display.  "Isn't that amazing that God would do that?"  I was momentarily proud of my worshipful observation.  "He didn't have to make it so beautiful."  Mr. Ferrier replied in his gravelly brogue, "Oh, but He did have to.  That is His character."

Two weeks ago, on a Friday night, the summer air combined with the work week's end to produce a swell of conversation as four of us in Adirondack chairs debated the differences between humans and animals.  All the usual answers were examined inside and out:  ability to reason... emotions....soul...  

If that discussion took place this evening I would offer the knowledge of the rightness of beauty.

"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard."  Psalm 19