Hi.

Welcome to
Transactions with Beauty.
Thanks for being here.
I hope that this is a space that inspires you to add something beautiful to the world. I truly believe that 
you are required to make something beautiful.

– Shawna

 

 

Three Beautiful Things for March

Three Beautiful Things for March

Last year, in March, we were in Chicago for spring break looking at amazing art at the Art Institute of Chicago. Because I've been yearning for a big long wander in a huge museum (and we have no such thing where I live) instead, I'm going to find other ways to fill up on beauty.

As I quoted in my first post on this blog, Goethe says, “A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

And then there are the words by Blaise Pascal that I've oft quoted, and which I first came across reading John O'Donohue's book, Beauty. "In difficult times you should always carry something beautiful in your mind." (Most other sources translate "mind" as "heart" and I can't decide which I like best). 

In difficult times you should always carry something beautiful in your mind.
— Blaise Pascal

So what I'm going to do is to choose a poem, a work of art, and a piece of music and live with them for the month of March. Perhaps you'd like to join in?

I'm still narrowing things down but maybe I'll choose the 'official poem of 2016' by Maggie Smith, 'Good Bones.' Something by Mozart. I'd like to choose a work by a woman artist, and I think I'm going to look at a work by Vanessa Bell (Virginia Woolf's sister) - possibly this one.

And you? What will you choose? 

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

Eleven Flower Quotations

Eleven Flower Quotations