Finding beauty everywhere-3rd March 2022

Ah yes, my old friend the mug. You are seeing it in different places around the house as it is a daily companion .  Again, that East light through the window.

Does anyone else find mornings to be a peaceful time? I would guess not, in most cases. The rush to get other members of the home to where ever they need to be- fed, dressed in something that my Grandmother might recognise as “respectable” and with all their necessary bits and pieces in tow- can be such a panic. That’s along side getting oneself similarly sorted. If you are lucky, and I AM lucky, you reach a stage in life where other responsibilities are held at bay for a precious time at the start of the day.

I am an early riser. I adore the peace and relative quiet of early morning. Each day, such potential.  I do not switch the radio or telly on first thing as I find it shatters the peace. I need to breathe in quiet along with my oxygen, thank you. Just for a bit…

This time is when I think, when I listen to the quiet, and when I see the things in the new morning light around me.

The picture taken above is the AFTER photo because it was taken as an experiment. It is not what I saw first that morning.  Rod has been finishing some important work, often late into the night and on this particular morning I came down to an untidied kitchen. I really don’t mind- he’s usually an absolute star with the late night washing up. I was very happy on this occasion as I spotted something that I just had to take a picture of, right then and there, still in slippers and dressing gown.

I have spoken briefly of the Japanese Wabi-Sabi idea and what I wanted to capture was something approaching this concept. Something that “just happened”. Something that couldn’t be staged or even exactly reproduced ever again, even if I tried. Something that, to my eyes, had a transient beauty that only the light coming in through the window had the ability to illuminate. Something that, in the normal course of events, would literally have been wiped away, my morning inspiration remaining forever unseen and unremarked.

I saw this:

This photo makes my heart sing in such a peculiar way.

The photo you see first, the AFTER photo- I wiped up the spilled egg white and took a picture. It is a perfectly “nice” photo but….

What do I see in this first, messy, photo I took that makes me want to just sit and look?

I see the old, wooden worktop- oiled at first, neglected as the years marched on,  marked with natural changes in the texture and colour tones of a natural product.

Imagine the same photo on a Formica worktop.

I see the way the two stripes of spilled egg white on the worktop seem to be having a conversation with the two stripes on the mug. One of nature’s “accidents”.

Imagine a different, plastic mug on a Formica worktop.

I see the way the sparkle of the little grains of salt pick out the highlights  on the mug and in the background, small sparks of light to contrast the darkness.

Imagine a grey day with a plastic mug on a Formica worktop.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are days when I loathe this worktop. It is impossible to keep really clean. I am just glad  to have read somewhere that wood has anti-bacterial properties, which is how we all survived a childhood where our mothers had one wooden chopping board- for everything.

I have plain white, porcelain Ikea mugs that I like perfectly well and use often, although I don’t have plastic mugs. But then, I don’t have kids and I am sure that is a game-changer in the plastic mug debate.

I do turn the overhead lights on to banish the shadows as needed and the top is usually wiped as clean as I can get it, several times a day.

Some days are grey and the magical light from the East is in hiding. Never mind about those days.

Keep looking for the magic when it happens. Take your own photos if you have a phone camera.  Keep them somewhere just for you or share them if you think they might inspire. Write about them and how they make you feel if you can find even a few seconds of time.

It’s your life.

Record it.

Not for others.

For yourself.

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