Timeless Beauty

October! Growing up on the East coast, October was always my favorite month. This seems to be true for many people, as the vibrant fall colors are so beautiful, even sometimes spectacular, before finally letting go to the earth and the quietness of winter.

The inner journey of listening for the next authentic self-expression and finding the words to describe it is becoming an ongoing practice. This is not about choosing a profession and jumping in, although there are some aspects to it that are like that. It requires sitting with the often uncomfortable feeling of not-knowing, something I have written about and taught, yet am still cultivating a gracefulness in ongoing development.

...it requires the passing of the ages to bring forth that inherent patina.

I have connected with a team of wonderfully creative and technologically astute folks to assist me with part of this process through re-designing my White Bird Rising website. One needs words to communicate through a website who one is, what one is committed to, and what one is offering that would be worth another’s time to stop by and consider.

So … “Who Am I?” That question brings me back decades to my early 20’s when we, as undergraduates, wrestled daily with that inquiry. Some of us are fortunate to still be interested in evolving into that ever-unfolding expansion of self. These days the inquiry is not infused with the angst of youth, more with the kind of quiet and tentative curiosity one might have when in the presence of a gracious and wise elder.

I had the great good fortune to spend three weeks in Italy since I last wrote this column. There is a timeless beauty that resonates throughout the countryside, the towns, the food, the Italians. There is a casualness infused with antiquity that is impossible to mimic – it requires the passing of the ages to bring forth that inherent patina.

The villas were old, requiring endless maintenance, yet the comfort and elegance that emanated from them, from the art, the gardens, the sharing silently through their beauty the wisdom of rebirth, all of this was hard-won and irreplaceable. 

I was reminded that everything I’m listening for is already integral to the eternal Who I Am, hard-won and irreplaceable.

Photo: San Gimignano, Tuscany, Italy by Laura Basha