“In one way, of course, God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you may ask, do we want? Ah, but we want so much more–something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words–to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it.”
-C.S. Lewis in “The Weight of Glory”
(photo taken in Ireland)
7 Responses
YES, YES, YES is my response to each of you! Bathing in beauty, becoming a part of the natural world, longing for an experience of God within me, the 10,000 hymns of praise that sing from within everything, to become a part of the light — no its definitely not too much to ask.
Blessings of beauty to each of you, Christine
I groaned out loud with the beauty and longing I felt when I saw that wonderful photograph. Yes, oh to be part of the light passing through the leaded window. I wonder if it’s too much to ask.
The sounds of mountain streams offer 10,ooo hymns a day in praise of the ancient Buddhas. So says Zen Master Dogen, his voice resounding from a mountain zendo in the 13th century. The strange thing is that when I lay awake in my room at night in New York City, the sound of the roaring traffic , the honks and clanks and muffled voices on the streets below, seem to me to be those same 10,ooo hymns of praise!
Emily Dickinson says in a letter: “Travel why to Nature when she dwells with us — those who lift their hats shall see her, as devout do God.”
Kigen
. . . I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water!. . . . i think it was from Eat, Pray, Love by E. Gilbert
yes, yes! to become part of it. it is not enough to sing of it in hymns. i want to praise God while standing IN the waterfall . . . or ON the mountain top . . .
lovely…to bathe in the beauty…yes. it feels as though this is what you are being able to do at your beach cottage in new and exciting ways.