Beauty All Around

It feels counterintuitive, since the sky is grey and the day is muggy. 

But there is a beautiful bouquet of blue hydrangea I cut from my garden on Sunday before the storms rolled in. It sits on my kitchen table in the small, green glass vase from a friend who moved back to England years ago. She gave it to me, filled with peonies from her garden. We had two years together here and became the closest of friends before she went. She is someone who teases the beauty out of every small thing. She makes a beautiful home. A beautiful garden. Beautiful art. Beautiful poetry. Friendship with her is beautiful.

We've continued our friendship even though we're separated by an ocean. First on Skype, and now on Zoom. In 2018 I traveled to England and spent a couple of weeks there. We explored the remains of a Roman Villa and a village in the Cotswolds, took the train to Paris for three days, returned and ambled around the hill of the Uffington White Horse, explored Avebury and Glastonbury. Drew water from the Chalice Well and climbed the Tor. Spent a day in London and relaxed into a whirlwind of sightseeing. 

I see all of these memories, and more, when I look into this green glass.  

The pale green centers of the hydrangea blossoms call to me. Their soft blues rest comfortably there, as if the glass was made just to hold them. They invite softness on a cloudy summer day and transform the whole scene into beauty. I pause before the busyness begins and notice. There is more than one way to be nourished.

The Green Wilderness is a daily writing practice that opens a landscape of discovery into my own human experience.

Katherine Cartwright has been blogging since 2012, and each year brings new wonders. She asks big questions of the small things in life.