J.Ruth Gendler

photo by DABrown

"Books and paintings are evidence of some journey we take..."

"What are you paying attention to and what is beautiful to you?"

excerpt from Notes on the Need for Beauty by J. Ruth Gendler

I'm reading this amazing book and I'm thinking about her ideas of seeing with awareness every day. she talks about beauty and how we see it in our surroundings and how we see it in each other. how we see yes in the word eyes and the see in si.

I heard her speak in bookstore and she relates an incident of how after painting for 4 hours she was driving home and got stopped for driving too slow. she laughed and said after being immersed in making art and losing herself in time it was then impossible for her to move through the world at the speed it was asking her to do. she speaks of feeling slowness's welcome.

To experience the welcome of slowness. I have occasional glimpses of this world when I'm caught up in reading or metalsmithing but it doesn't stay. slow down. reclaim time to be, to observe beauty, dream and imagine. after working at the crazy pace of floor nursing for umpteen years, my steps are a match to a marathon runner. I implore my toes, my thoughts, to dance the movements of a ballet. measured grace. beauty.