On, In, and Around Mondays: One Name for God

"You see? That's a little bit of God."

I used to walk my children around the yard and say these kinds of things, pointing to some iridescent petal, or offering a a blade of grass to touch.

Today I was reading about the Gothic builders, who believed that the physical stuff of our world somehow reaches to the Divine. It is why they built as the built. Soaring cathedrals filled with light.

There is no cathedral here. But there is beauty. And this is what the medieval mind equated with God. Indeed, one philosopher of the time claimed that beauty was the only name for God.

As a poet, I see how other words can stand in for the word beauty, just as beauty stood in for God, in the medieval mind.

I look into my teacup, and say blossom-tea, and think of God unfolding into sweet water (thank you, Susan, for suspecting I would find this tea beautiful. I do.) I look outside my back door and say, moss-soft-and-life-green, and think of God.

Roses on the counter. Daughter turning pages. Piano, guitar, flute, waiting in the golden-sunset room. Plum candles. Japanese bowls. Forsythia swelling near my window.

Dostoevsky said that beauty would save the world. This morning, as I say its names, beauty is saving me.


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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.

If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)

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This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...