When I was a kid, the scavenger hunt 

was a staple of party entertainment . . .  

We were given a list of things to find, and then we pestered neighbors (and complete strangers, actually) by ringing their doorbells and making our requests until we had everything on the list. It's only one of the things that responsible adults have surely thought better of in current child-rearing practices.  (However, it was great fun at the time...)

I was thinking about scavenger hunts while pondering beauty for the essay I recently intended to write, but ended up not writing.

Because I decided that I aspire to be 

 a scavenger of beauty.

 

And it gave me 

a weekend idea:

I propose a beauty scavenger hunt!

I'm not talking about knocking on people's doors, but something more like the auto-bingo game we also used to play, where you marked off a space if you saw a tow truck or a railroad crossing.

A beauty scavenger hunt might be just the thing for a humdrum January weekend in which you've just finished vacuuming up a full quart of pine needles, and you've exceeded your holiday going-to-movies budget.

So -- here's my challenge to you, Dear Reader -- 

I want you to find:

1.  A beautiful line 

(could be the curl of a wisp of smoke, the curve of a lover's smile, or the silhouette of a tree-branch against a January sky, for instance)

2.  A beautiful sound 

(maybe a laugh, a symphony, birdsong, or something you've never heard before)

3. A beautiful color
(even winter gray can be lovely, when adequately savored)

4. A beautiful turn-of-phrase 

(pay attention to the dance of words for a change, and notice the ones that create an immediate spark when they brush up against one another)

5.  A beautiful thought
(think one yourself, or look and listen -- people have them all the time)

6.  A beautiful movement 

(particularly expressive of grace, or energy, or emotion)

7.  A beautiful moment 

(the kind that makes you want to hit "pause" or perhaps even "rewind")

The "Art" of the world around us, naturally occurring and only waiting to be discovered . . . I think taking a moment to have a relationship with 7 items of beauty is a good start.  I'll take notes and bring you back my findings next week.  

(I really hope some of you might share yours as well...?)

Happy Hunting!



  

Show and Tell......well...sorta.

 

One of the nice things . . .

. . . about getting the holiday clutter put away is that it gives me a chance to better appreciate my familiar old things.

We like each other much more after a few weeks apart.  By the time December rolls around and we've been staring at each other all year, unfortunately it seems we hardly notice each other anymore.

This, for instance, is one of my most prized possessions:

Desert Bloom, Robert Daughters, 34 x 24, hand-pulled serigraph of 27 colors

It lives in my dining room, where I pass it 100 times per day.  But eventually I stop seeing it.  Despite its imposing size.  And despite the fact that it has so much of what I love -- movement, sky, amazing color, the desert. 

So I have spent the past few days apologizing to it and getting reacquainted -- giving it the notice it deserves -- and I think we're both happier as a result.

Which leads me back to last Friday's post, 

my Beauty Scavenger Hunt challenge.  

I often have pretty good ideas, but sometimes I don't think them through very well before I blurt them out, and it can get me in trouble.

I should have considered, for instance, before I issued the challenge, whether I would have the technology

to do it justice when I reported on it later.  It only took me about 3 seconds (after I hit publish, of course) to smack my head and remember that I can't take a decent photo to save my life.

SO HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO DOCUMENT 

MY COLLECTION OF BEAUTY? Rats.

I stewed about it all weekend, while simultaneously enjoying the search for the items I would like to include on my list, but had no idea what to do when Monday rolled around.

Then yesterday, the lovely Leenie at Side Trips  (unhampered by a lack of talent in any area)  posted her results in an ABSOLUTELY PERFECT array . . . I hope hope hope you will visit!  Her list is splendid, and it's difficult to choose which item of her collection I like best.

I am so glad she did it so very well.  Because now I feel much better about taking my own report another direction entirely...I'm much better at the TELL than at the SHOW, after all, so I decided to try to communicate my scavenger experience in words.

Yes, I know a picture is worth a thousand of them . . .

But the idea was for me to get in touch with 7 items of beauty, and I definitely did so! My list is contained in the following poem.  I'm only sorry I was not able to buy beautiful postcards to better share my experience with you, Dear Reader.  Please forgive me.

Scavenger of Beauty

no thanks is given

for what is left unseen

beauty un-grasped

un-savored, empty

eyes and hands, minds

that walk a straight line, look

ahead but not around

and fail to find a gift

along the way --

lines that trace their change

in sticks, in stems and branches, buds

a curl of hair, a wrinkle

at the corner of an eye

the song of a voice, its sound

or the silent hole it leaves

the color of light, spilling

weightless love on all it touches

words that bump and spin a dance

ideas, thoughts fleeting, minds that chase

the heart, its beating blur of movement

moon's blunt glow on ice

a drift, a graceful skiff of snow

clouds crossing sky, their mark of time

a crowd of anything, alive

and teeming with itself

our moment standing in this place
still, one breath between us

there for all if we will take them

to pocket, wonder, praise --

our thanks is in our notice

keep collecting

--smh

P.S. This just in -- best horoscope ever:

Gemini -- You're a sensual being.  As intellectual as you may be, you're always operating on another level, too, a level that is affected by things like color, warmth and music.  You'll gravitate toward beauty....

Hey, thanks, Ms. Fate!