Sunday 29 April 2012

“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”


a friend of mine was recently telling me the story of how she was standing, looking at the front door 
and imagining it with a pretty tile hanging nearby. her son was amazed that she was just standing. why was she standing there? he wanted to know. she told him that she was trying to visualise this decorative tile. again, the question: why?i would like one beautiful thing, just one beautiful thing" she said.
the story made me a little sad. my friend has been a farmer for many years, working drought effected land with lots of heartbreak and not a lot of joy or lot of money. she is also a practical woman by nature, not given to needless frippery and functionality is top of her requirement list whatever she is dealing with so i see how it is that there aren't many beautiful things in her life but it got me to thinking about how to have beauty and still have functionality.


of course my idea of beauty isnt everyone's but i thought i would make a list of ways i might try to "upsize" in the beauty department, even if i spent my days driving a tractor
  • exchange white t-shirts for colours
  • buy clothes that have interest added through texture or a print
  • dress up for trips to town
  • get some inexpensive jewellery that you wont mind losing or breaking
  • have a regular haircut, or use pretty ties
  • wear nice undies, you gotta wear em so they might as well be nice
i wonder what you do to keep some beauty in your life? and what is the male equivalent? do the fellas like a new shirt? a boutique beer? extra time in the shed? new gadgets?

*pictured oxfam resin bracelet $8.95

3 comments:

  1. Beauty is in the "eye" of the beholder. Trouble is some people do not have any Eyes for beauty. Some have no eye for elegant clothes but love beautiful gardens and nature, can't appreciate the lines of an aircraft but like seeing Sydney's Opera House.

    However some have beauty in their lives that asserts itself through their ears. It may be read poetry,an Obama speech, A Mozart composition or some varieties of jazz music . Who knows even one's own sense of aesthetic?

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  2. Beauty for me is in the garden, in the changing sky, the cats, the birds, quirky earrings, in new books I discover, in old books to reread and savour... I have so much beauty in my life! And while I sort of knew, this post made me count my blessings. Thank you.

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  3. Good question. I have lots of beautiful things in my life. Patterned shirts, the cherry blossom tree outside, all the other plants, paintings, music (that counts as beautiful, surely?), amazing sunsets, exotic rugs, lovely vases....well, the sky's the limit really. And I'm not one of those blokes who thinks the latest gadget is "beautiful". Surely the wrong word?

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