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Enchanted April

April 27, 2008

susan_preston_cherrytree2.jpg

Enchanted Trees ~ Canon 30d

All the radiance of April in Italy lay gathered together at her feet. The sun poured in on her. The sea lay asleep in it, hardly stirring. Across the bay the lovely mountains, exquisitely different in colour, were asleep too in the light; and underneath her window, at the bottom of the flower-starred grass slope from which the wall of the castle rose up, was a great cypress, cutting through the delicate blues and violets and rose-colours of the mountains and the sea like a great black sword.

She stared. Such beauty; and she there to see it. Such beauty; and she alive to feel it. Her face was bathed in light. Lovely scents came up to the window and caressed her. A tiny breeze gently lifted her hair. Far out in the bay a cluster of almost motionless fishing boats hovered like a flock of white birds on the tranquil sea. How beautiful, how beautiful. Not to have died before this... to have been allowed to see, breathe, feel this... She stared, her lips parted. Happy? Poor, ordinary, everyday word. But what could one say, how could one describe it? It was as though she could hardly stay inside herself, it was as though she were too small to hold so much joy, it was as though she were washed through with light.

~ Elizabeth von Arnim, Enchanted April


I may not live in Elizabeth von Armin's world, but mine is nonetheless miraculous. Our capacity for beauty knows no limits when we train the heart and eye to find it everywhere.

Posted by vincent at April 27, 2008 08:33 AM

Comments

And you and your lens seem to capture it everywhere! Beautiful!

Posted by: jayne at April 27, 2008 09:03 AM

More Spring beauty and story.

Posted by: janet at April 28, 2008 11:58 AM

i saw enchancted april (the movie) years ago and have since wanted to purchase it for my viewing pleasure but i haven't been able to find a copy...maybe the book would be a better purchase anyway...

Posted by: michelle/tangled wings at April 30, 2008 12:16 PM

I've missed so much beauty from years of living in my head and in the shadow of craving. We are meant to have this marvelous sensuous experience of the earth with spirt and flesh that allow an exquisite permeable intimacy.

Ironically I still fall asleep to beauty. It had become a habit to fall asleep. But everyday I am slowly learning how to wake up and it is glorious. "Training the heart and eye to see it": I shout a resounding YES! Your photos are the height of an eye trained to see beauty everywhere.

Namaste

Posted by: kathy at May 1, 2008 10:54 AM

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