Morning 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Sure, ugliness can be found in today's world, whether it's created by people or naturally occurring. Dirty streets full of trash and cardboard shelters, or the charred landscape of a wildfire, both are undesirable and no one would call them beautiful.

But beauty is all around us too. A daffodil (like yesterday's picture) is beautiful, and so are the green of the trees and the blue sky that surround the garden, making the overall picture. As human beings, we do our part to try to create order and beauty around us in lots of ways.

Materialists may say beauty is just a point of view, not real. But our love for it is deep in our hearts as human beings. It's beyond material and more than the sum of its parts. It's transcendent.

"Morning Has Broken" is beautiful. It likens a fresh, early morning to God's work of Creation on Earth in the beginning. We all sense the beauty. We were made to. 

from "The Transcendental Treasury of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness"

Morning

A couple nights ago, we had rain where we live. Early the next day I walked through my gardens. "Morning had broken," flowers and leaves were sparkling in the sunlight. 

Whenever I see the "sweetness of the wet garden," it reminds me of a very old song as sung in the 1970's by Cat Stevens:

"Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning, born of the one light Eden saw play. Praise with elation, praise every morning, God's recreation of the new day."

(cont'd tomorrow)

Christmas beauty 3

Christmas has been inspiring composers of music for hundreds of years. The musical results then inspire the rest of us.

Johann Sebastian Bach was himself inspired by the God of the Bible. His music was "the expression of a unitary … world view, in which all beauty … was sacred because God was one, both Creator and Redeemer."

"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." —J.S. Bach

Here is beauty from his Christmas Oratorio, to glorify God and refresh your soul.

Walkability 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

According to Walkable City author Speck, several factors make street life - "pedestrian culture" - desirable.  More walking/less driving means an overall saving of money as well as obvious fitness benefits and less CO2 in the atmosphere.  City walkability appeals both to millennials and to empty-nester boomers, who are willing to pay more in real estate dollars to live there.

image

Speck helps city governments and planners to incorporate these goals:

• Protect pedestrians from traffic and parking lots
• Bring back awnings and trees
• Make biking easy
• Make public transit more accessible  
• Line streets with interesting store fronts

Walkability 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

There's a term for it according to city planner Jeff Speck's book, Walkable City. If pedestrians are comfortable walking from place to place, if they feel safe and interested in what they see, if they are intrigued and engaged by the street life, the city has walkability.

American cities, according to Speck, are designed for cars. Wide traffic lanes, fast-moving traffic, huge parking lots, clearing of obstacles including trees, all inhibit pedestrians' sense of comfort. These features get cars into and out of cities efficiently, but they discourage walking.

Picture a boring and unpleasant street scene, then imagine how it could be made beautiful and appealing (click on the picture below). That's what this organization does:

photo: walklive.org

Walkable city-scapes are high in real estate value. Millennials (~age 20-32) expect to live in an urban core, or at least 77% of them do. They - and the empty nest boomer generation too - will pick an urban neighborhood that makes city living safe, friendly, interesting. 

Walkability 1

Many millennials want to live in cities. One of my sons did that for three years, but never had the experience he hoped for. He moved to a suburb last summer. A friend enlightened me about the appeal of city living - she longs to walk to her destinations and live among diverse neighbors.

image

My son and my friend are right on-trend, and investors are well aware of it. In this NY Times story an investor group has bought a 30-story office building to re-purpose into a combination of residential apartments, retail shops, restaurants, a fitness center - in addition to office space. "Mixed-use" development means more destinations within walking distance.

"Walkability" has been quantified, and you can get a score for hundreds of cities and neighborhoods here.

Not all cities, nor all areas within cities, draw people in. How do you do that, i.e., create city spaces that people actually love? Mayors and city councils have been asking. 

(cont'd tomorrow)

Casual art

Enjoy this post from almost five years ago, maybe the most beautiful thing you will enjoy today:

Imagine a big extended family gets together. Just for the fun of it, just casually standing around in the living room, wearing t-shirts and jeans - they all break out into glorious harmonious song. 

How can everybody in this family all be amazing?

Dark sky

 "Protecting the night from light pollution," that's what the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) has been doing since 1988. 

To those who would question their mission, they say: "When used indiscriminately, outdoor lighting can disrupt wildlife, impact human health, waste money and energy, contribute to climate change, and block our view of the universe."

My husband and I for many years have camped in a tent on the North Shore of Lake Superior. This beautiful, natural ecosystem alongside the world's biggest lake has a few small towns but no big cities and little artificial light. The nights are really dark and the stars are glorious. On clear, warm nights we uncover the mesh roof of our tent and fall asleep looking into space.

It's an experience you can't get in a city. I hope you have a good way to enjoy the dark, starry night sky.

Christmas beauty 2

Christmas has been inspiring composers of music for hundreds of years. The musical results then inspire the rest of us.

Johann Sebastian Bach was himself inspired by the God of the Bible. His music was "the expression of a unitary … world view, in which all beauty … was sacred because God was one, both Creator and Redeemer."

"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." —J.S. Bach

Here is beauty from his Christmas Oratorio, to glorify God and refresh your soul.

#Sacrificial

Self-sacrificial love is a real thing. But you won't see the following kind of story anywhere in mainstream media. When missionaries are mentioned in MSM, it tends not to be good.

But there's a lot more to the story.

Re-post:

David and Laurie Vanderpool live in Haiti; they expect to die there. David is a surgeon. They provide clean water, medical care, and food to the poor. They could have air conditioning, fine food, comfort and entertainment in America. But to give their lives to the Haitian poor, they had to give it up. They're Christian missionaries.

They are attacked sometimes by those who practice voodoo. It's a powerful force. "My wife has been held at gunpoint and pistol-whipped. And had a knife to her throat. I know to American ears that sounds sort of, that sounds horrible, you know?" 

Yes, it does.

photo

Why would anyone live like this when they could have lived a comfortable life? Because they believe God wants them there, and because they think the good they do for the people of Haiti is worth it. 

They see beauty in a life of sacrifice. 

Co-creators 3

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Like most of us, you have probably been amazed at the unexpected art forms people create which turn up on social media. Human beings can create art out of just about anything (ex: musical instruments out of junkyard trash). Creativity of different kinds is built into us, sort of a family trait from our Creator.

Whether it's a song, a drawing, or landscape design, or a movie, etc., we deeply respond to it when the artist embodies in his own art some reflection of eternal Beauty or Wisdom. His or her love of that wisdom or beauty is what drives it.

C. S. Lewis (in his fiction, The Great Divorce) describes the motivation of a painter: "When you painted on earth--at least in your earlier days--it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape. The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too."

from Deeper Magic: the Theology Behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis 

Special note: If C. S. Lewis interests you, plan to see a new movie that will be shown in some theaters about his life and journey from atheism to Christian faith on November 3. "The Most Reluctant Convert" was filmed in and around Oxford by a British director.

Co-creators 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

God was the first to create, the first artist and first builder. Our race takes after Him, and we create too. In fact, we take the material he provided in the natural world and do something with it to bless and serve our family and neighbors. 

"Someone who loves roses can develop new hybrids with different fragrances or colors. When they do this, they function as an image bearer of God, governing roses. Others govern wood; from a block of wood they can make something beautiful.

"This truth applies not only to the fine arts but to every creative work: an oil painting and a lesson plan, a musical composition and a clean toilet, a literary novel and a tidy home that refreshes a family, an exquisite sculpture and a successful surgery, a pencil sketch and a repaired vehicle, a verse of poetry and a new work process.

J.R.R.Tolkien, Christian and author of Lord of the Rings, says we are sub-creators, continuing and completing the creation of this world begun by The Creator.

from Darrow Miller and Friends

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not optional

 You probably can name a few things in life that you consider "not optional." I wonder if you've considered the importance of beauty. 

Psychologist Jordan Peterson and screenwriter Randall Wallace talk about the significance of beauty in this video. They both tell a story of an encounter with someone who was deeply touched by beauty which made a difference in their lives.

Early blossoms

Cherry trees famously bloom in the spring for the Japanese every year. But this year, the beautiful event was early.

A university researcher says that she found documentation of the peak flowering date all the way back to 812 A.D. in the Kyoto area. This year's flowering peak was the earliest ever recorded - March 26.

More than one factor affects the event, but it's thought that higher temperatures are responsible for the trend toward earlier and earlier flowering.

It only lasts a few days and it is celebrated.

photo

Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei is Latin for "Lamb of God" . . the image the Bible holds of Jesus Christ: innocent, given to the world of humankind to redeem us from the darkness.

If you are not a believer, or not yet, here's a question for you. What if you learned that it's all true, that the One True God created and loves the world and you individually? Would you rejoice in this music?

It will resonate in your spirit only if you know the One True God to be both good and true. This is my favorite song for Christmas this year.

Miraculous cell 1

This morning I ordered a new book by Dr. Michael Denton, The Miracle of the Cell. Reading it will be joyous, judging from my experience of reading his other books. Here is an excerpt for a preview.

As an article in Nature says, "the complexity of biology has seemed to grow by orders of magnitude." A biochemist (study of chemistry in living organisms) at Berkeley says, "It seems like we're climbing a mountain that keeps getting higher and higher . . The more we know, the more we realize there is to know."

The cell is the smallest unit of life and the most complicated. Quoting Dr. Denton, "In terms of compressed complexity, cells are without peer in the material world, actualized or imagined."

What goes on in a living cell was a complete mystery before the mid-20th century. "Only as the veil began to lift with the mid-century molecular biological revolution did science begin to glimpse the sophistication of these extraordinary pieces of matter." I'll share the discoveries with you when I get it in a couple of weeks.

Hymn

Beauty, honor, respect, majesty, all appropriate to this music set in Westminster Abbey last March. The Queen and the royal family all take part in this celebration of Commonwealth Day.

"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation," "Ponder anew what the Almighty can do" - much of the hymn is taken from the Bible. I know the words, I sing along from my heart.

Maybe you are tempted to scorn the pomp as hypocritical. Do most in this abbey join their faith with the genuine historic faith of Britain? No. We're well aware that Christianity has severely declined in all of Europe.

But I love to see this remnant of historic faith still honored. May these God-inspired words and ideas still have impact. 

Something beautiful to enjoy this Monday.

Oratorio

Last year I discovered Bach's Christmas Oratorio.

I listened to it many times on my laptop and through the big speakers. I looked up the lyrics, learned the alto part, sang it loudly with the recorded choirs; my hair stood on end.

Trumpet brilliance, baroque precision, harmonic color - all elements of the music. Words of goodness--truth--beauty.

Listen and see if it lifts your spirit on this Christmas Day.



Christians be joyful! And praise your salvation.
------For today your redeemer is come!
Cease to be fearful, Forget lamentation.
Haste with thanksgiving to greet this glad morn!

Central Park

Parks are a priority in my town, but my town isn't unique. Community parks are common in the America. New York City may have the most famous one.

It's Central Park, very big by ordinary standards, 843 acres, and in the middle of Manhattan.

photo: reference.com

Its designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, had a purpose to accomplish with this park. He  said that the beauty of the natural landscape expresses God's love, and he wanted “hundreds of thousands of tired workers” to be healed of their “vital exhaustion,” “nervous irritation.'

from "Central Park: the largest religious art work in the city, Part 1. Series: God in NYC Gardens"

Christmas beauty

Christmas-inspired music has been inspiring us for hundreds of years (the first Christmas was something like 4 A.D.). 

Johann Sebastian Bach was himself inspired by the God of the Bible. His music was "the expression of a unitary … world view, in which all beauty … was sacred because God was one, both Creator and Redeemer."

"The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul." —J.S. Bach

Here is beauty from his Christmas Oratorio, to glorify God and refresh your soul.