Beauty: The Root of Gratitude
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Advent Stave...2026 Calendar...Sabbath Stave...Notecards 〰️
Focus
During this season of thanksgiving and gratitude, when the world seems to be ever more fraught with chaos and struggles, we might consider opening our eyes and hearts to small glimmers of beauty as a way to nourish our gratitude.
In the Vineyard
The past few weeks in Sonoma County were stunningly beautiful… the kind of beauty that takes your breath away… or makes you pause and exhale or causes you to laugh out loud and dance. The clear blue canopy of sky and warm sunshine illuminated every symmetrical leaf, intensifying the yellows, oranges, reds, and purples as if they were tiny stained-glass windows in a grand cathedral. The rows and rows of vines dressed in fall colors, like proud dancers with their arms tossed in the air and their feet gracefully connecting with the carpet of green grass, were an invitation to wonder, joy, and gratitude. Driving along the road, I told my husband sitting next to me how I wished my camera could capture the beauty I see and feel when I look at the vines.
Sustainable Flourishing
As I look for beauty, especially in small things, I find that my capacity for gratitude increases, even in the midst of suffering and chaos. When I can maintain stability in gratitude, I am a better human. I am emotionally healthy, and I am able to be more resilient, give more grace, be more generous, and bring more wisdom to every situation. Perhaps, one could say that the root of gratitude is beauty. If that is true, then we must make a practice of finding beauty.
John O’Donohue explores the vast theme of beauty in his (dare I say it?) beautiful book, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace. He says this, “Each of us is responsible for how we see, and how we see determines what we see. Seeing is not merely a physical act: the heart of vision is shaped by the state of soul. When the soul is alive to beauty, we begin to see life in a fresh and vital way.” (pg. 18)
During this season of thanksgiving and gratitude, when the world seems to be ever more fraught with chaos and struggles, we might consider opening our eyes and hearts to small glimmers of beauty as a way to nourish our gratitude. A friend of mine, whose neighborhood was ravaged by the January fires in Altadena, spoke about an internal shift towards gratitude that happened when she noticed a tiny, beautiful flower growing out of the rubble of the house across the street.
Where will you encounter beauty today? Watch to see if it cultivates a sense of gratitude.
“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, [in every fair vineyard], and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. ”
Maybe together we can gently, but firmly, assert with Dostoevsky that, “…beauty will save the world.”
Beauty is one of our core values at Conversations in the Vineyard. We believe there is beauty in every season of the vineyard, beauty in every human, beauty in gracious words spoken, beauty in messy communities, beauty in the struggle, beauty in metaphor.. Every retreat we facilitate is wrapped in beauty, bringing refreshment to the soul and enlarging our capacity for genuine gratitude, even in the midst of hard realities.
Does your team need some soul refreshment? Consider booking an off-site or a retreat in the beauty of the vineyard.
With you on the (beautiful) journey,
Susie Lipps
We have some new beautiful things that may enhance your season of gratitude and gifting! Take a look!
