Reverence and Beauty

Reverence and Beauty

To celebrate signing the lease with new tenants and a major appliance move that has opened up loads of space in our back hallway (where we were storing a fridge, stove, washer and dryer from previous tenants) I decided to treat myself to Andrew Harvey's new book, Heart YogaHeart Yoga.

While I was there I also thought I deserved a wander through the bargain book section to celebrate having done yoga and an aerobic dance workout this week with no tailbone pain – the first pain-free exercise in about 5 months. There I found cheap, cheap, cheap books that captured my interest.

I really noticed how my book-buying focus has shifted. As I wandered through the aisles I was drawn towards religious books and had no interest in the health books. Interesting, because I know that several years ago that book on Reflexology would have been irresistible. As would the books on politics a couple of years ago and the environmental books about four years ago. Now I look at them and I think, 'Nah, I've got that under control.' It is reassuring to me, as a book addict, that at least my interests change and I continue to grow.

The one funny part was that one of the books I did not purchase was ReverenceReverence, but yesterday morning while I was reading John O'Donohue's wonderful BeautyBeauty, I came across this passage, actually an entire page on Reverence as a Pathway to Beauty and I realized that I had to return and get that little book for less than $4. O'Donohue explains that "in order to become attentive to beauty, we need to rediscover the art of reverence… the notion of reverence is full of riches that we need now desperately. Ultimately, reverence is respect before mystery… a dignified attention of body showing that sacred is already here" (31).

I'm willing to take that as a sign.