An Openness For Mystery

Blue Ridge Mountain Rainbow, Photography by Gaye Abbott, 2022

“We are all born with openness for mystery”

~Br. David Steindl-Rast

This time of year often seems to be taken over with holiday preparations, gatherings and delectable food. Yet, if we pay attention we may notice there is a yearning within to simply stop and connect with the ordinary beauty, mystery and sacredness that this time of year reveals.

A waning of light leading up to Winter Solstice, or an expansion of light if you are about to launch into Summer Solstice, next week. Both teach us lessons in being and connection as we enter into the natural order of seasons beyond the hustle and bustle and apart from pain, suffering and grief.

Opening to our innate childlike curiosity and openness to the mystery of life unfolding…..and entering into the flow and magic of fully giving and receiving.

Blue Ridge Mountain Rainbow, Photography by Gaye Abbott, 2022

How many unseen mysteries are out of our direct perception? I don’t know about you but rainbows are always magical to me and make me smile every single time. Somewhere over the rainbow….and pots of gold at the end of them – but there is actually no end!

The rainbow in the image above takes the form of a multicolored circular arc of refracted light, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets.

Yet rainbows are full circles! The observer normally sees only an arc formed by illuminated droplets above the ground, and centered on a line from the Sun to the observer’s eye. The earth simply gets in the way of us seeing the full circle.

This beauty of light and color holds magic and mystery. Curiously I wonder how many other every day mysteries are right before us, yet we pass them by or don’t take the time or interest to explore their many facets and depths.

Are we living in a dirge of black and white rather than in a spectrum of color?

I invite you to watch the trailer below, and then the complete film, Gratitude Revealed, filmed by film maker, Louie Schwartzberg. A perfect time to be reminded of simply being alive and living a more meaningful and connected full spectrum color life of gratitude, compassion, connection, creative passion, and love. Each one of us holds the power to shift consciousness….

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“ORDINARY BEAUTY” will be a series of short weekly blog posts through the end of this year on finding and witnessing ordinary beauty through the experience and wisdom of elderhood. Stay tuned!

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Gaye Abbott, Wildly Free Elder, 12/15/23