Beauty: An Unexpectedly Powerful Core Value

The church quilters meet most Mondays from 9:00a.m.-1:00p.m.  When we we're able to, River and I go down to the fellowship hall in the basement where they work so that we can greet the ladies, look at the fabrics, and admire their creations.  This past Monday, what caught my eye was the arrangement of 9-piece quilt blocks on a large, square table.  Beautiful fabrics of bright florals, old-fashioned patterns, and abstract prints, along with assorted solid colors, had been cut into 4-inch squares and then sewn into three rows of three in order to create the 9-piece blocks.  One of the quilters, Sue, was experimenting with an initial arrangement of five rows of the blocks when I walked over to see what she was working on this week.  

While I stood looking at Sue's project she told me that all of the quilt blocks had been donated, including the ones spread out of the table and the substantial stack of 9-piece blocks at the end of the table!  Sue talked about the work that went into the blocks as she experimented with the order of them according to color and effect.  Then she shared her deep hope: That once these quilts were completed that they'd be donated to Lutheran World Relief and would go to Ukraine.

 Her spoken hope made me think about the daily news reports concerning the war.  The photos of Ukrainian cities show burned up, and blown out, buildings.  The buildings are all grey, black, and soot--the colors of fire, wreckage and ruin.  In poignant contrast, the quilters are creating beauty, warmth and hope out of donated and leftover brightly-colored fabric in a church basement.   I could only imagine what it might mean to a woman, or a man, or a child, to receive one of these hand-made quilts made with these beautiful fabrics.  And love.  Will "she" reach out and touch the fabric?  Will "he" listen to his child picking out their favorite square?  Will the child be comforted?

Years ago my next-door neighbor, Cate, and I had had a few conversations on core values and what each of ours might be. Then one day she stopped by with a magazine article on core values to share with me. When I finished reading it I grabbed my journal and wrote down the six core values that came easily to my mind.  The next day I added one more.  And a few months later I added one last core value to my list: Beauty.  

In a way I inherited my core value of beauty from my mother and grandmother.  My grandmother had been a skilled seamstress (I still have two of her exquisite suits from the 40's).  Having learned to sew from her, my mother was likewise skilled in the designing and sewing of clothing.  She used good quality fabrics, classic lines, and if it was a plaid, it matched perfectly at the seams!  

But my mother's love of beauty extended beyond fabric and sewing clothing.  She loved cultivating her English flower garden and taught me that there should always be a bit of white and blue in a garden.  She taught me how to hold up a dish to the light in order to see if I could see the shadow of my fingers through it indicating it was fine bone china.  She treasured quality children's literature and, by reading out loud, taught me about prose, verse and cadence (The Secret Garden is the first book I remember her reading out loud).  

For my mother, beauty was a core value to the end, even when dementia had taken away other aspects of her.  Once, during an afternoon drive around Sioux Falls, we went to the park where the large-scale, graceful, serpentine sculpture Sea Dream by Steve Thomas was placed.  I pulled into the parking lot so that Mom could have a good view of this old favorite of hers.  After gazing at it for a moment, Mom clearly said, "Beautiful."

Through my happy-curious experiments I've learned that Beauty is no superficial core value.  Beauty, whether in the form of a flower garden, a china cup, a sculpture, or a quilt, has the power to capture our attention, to bring us fully into the present moment, to reveal a piece of the Divine design in the midst of pain and chaos, and to bring us into harmony, and, in doing so, to heal us.  As we experience the healing power of beauty, happiness is possible.  Which is the point of this post, and the goal of my blog.

I hope you have a beautiful day,

            Nancy ☕

A Happy-Curious Experiment:                                                                                                                   

1.  Happiness can be experienced by living out our core values.  What about you? What are your core values?  Here's a list of some core values to start with, but add your own, too!  I suggest only picking out 5-8 in order to hone in on what's really important to you:

acceptance    adventurous    artistry   boldness    bravery    charity     transformation      cheerfulness  cleanliness   hospitality     compassion     courage     creativity     dependability    empathy    self-control  faithfulness     fitness     flexibility     freedom     gentleness     gracefulness     playfulness   well-being    helpfulness     hopefulness     honesty    happiness     humility     humor     integrity     intelligence    inventiveness    joy   kindness     liberation     love   loyalty    openness   passionate   perceptive    pleasure  reverence     security     simplicity     supportiveness    thrift     tradition    trustworthiness     wealth    wisdom    generosity    others....

I'm interested in hearing about your core values.   What came up for you?   What are your long-standing values?   Do you have any "inherited" core values?                                                                                                     Feel free to leave your comments below to add to the conversation on this blog topic.                                            Thank you!  Nancy  ☕

2.  Where and how can you experience beauty today?  Besides being present to your movements, or to animals in your world, or to the taste of your food, or the design of your clothes, here are a few online options:

The Secret Garden (audio book)

Scotland - Highlands and Islands; Nature Documentary

Dolce & Gabbana Dreamy Fashion Show

What ways do you experience beauty?  Feel free to leave your comments below to engage with other happy-curious people.                                                                                                                                                                         Thank you!  Nancy  ☕