― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory
Beauty can infect our working hectic lives, if only we allow it. The thing is, and stop me when you've heard this before, our daily choices can quickly become our daily ritual.
Do you see the difference?
So many seasons of my life I'll complain that I don't have the time to go spend time outside, or sit quietly and meditate, or even go for a walk. And sometimes that is true, but if I'm honest most of the time I choose to spend my time in other arenas, which then conveniently provides me the excuse of not having time for the reflective moments in life.
The problem is one of my favorite writers is C.S. Lewis and he made it a quest in his life to explore and discover beauty in as much of his life as possible. And he always started with the simple things. A gentle rain on the window sill. Birds providing a background chorus in the early morning light. A child dancing without fear. So many simple things in life that we can walk right by without recognition if we are not purposeful with our discoveries.
Because it is in those simple moments that we find ourselves.
In his “Memoir of C.S. Lewis,” Warren Lewis, C.S. Lewis’s older brother, recalls how “Jack” (C.S. Lewis’s self-chosen childhood nickname) did not envy the modern child save for their ability to use “gumboots and oilskins and a sou’wester” for outdoor play during periods of rain.
As the brothers reminisced about their childhood years later, Warren notes how, aside from those modern inventions, “Jack” lamented “the lost simplicity of country pleasures: the empty sky, the unspoilt hills, the white silent roads on which you could hear the rattle of a farm cart half a mile away.”
The theme of beauty remained a central thread throughout Lewis’s life, according to the ones who knew him best and whom he loved most, Warren Lewis and Arthur Greeves.
In fact, Jack described himself as a beauty hunter; spending his life trying to find that place where all the beauty came from.
And that pursuit nurtured his work.
Lewis worked hard as an academic and writer, but understood how vital the role of beauty played to nourish his pursuits.
The more I learn about Lewis and his writing, the more I discover a man of simple yet robust tastes. A man who took the time to drink in the simplicity of the beauty around him.
Lewis enjoyed the habit of walking the garden before breakfast in order to drink in “the beauty of the morning, thanking God for the weather, the roses, the song of the birds, and anything else he could find to enjoy."
That revelation generated a new habit in me long ago, of thanking God on my drive into work, and even before the drive began for a roof, food, family, laughter, and then for my car starting that morning.
Maybe that's something we should all spend a little more time doing each day.
Because you don't have to be a literary giant, a great philosopher, or even an Eastern mystic to understand and appreciate beauty.
You just have to be willing to take a walk and, as Tolstoy says, " In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you."
Until next time . . .
