Orienting to Beauty

       Part of a delightful group of 16 travelers, Joanie and I just returned from a two-week immersion in beauty.  The ecosystems of Costa Rica are rich in variety and vibrancy – teaming with extravagantly diverse and colorful plant and animal life.  From tropical beaches – where we walked on warm sand, swam in the balmy blue-green Pacific surf and were entertained by colonies of white-face monkeys romping in a jungle of trees at the edge of the beach – to the lush, mile-high cloud forests – shrouded in perpetual mists which caressed our faces as we zip-lined through the tree tops – beauty was unavoidable.

       Interestingly, home now for a few days, I find that I'm still seeing beauty.  It's as if a fortnight in Eden has shifted something, at least temporarily, in my way of experiencing the world.  I'm reminded that seeing beauty is as much about an inner orientation, an inner aesthetic, as it is about the aesthetics of out there. 

       Costa Rica was a jump start – a reminder, perhaps, that we can orient to beauty any time.  Why not now?