No. 32 Beauty

Facilitator______________
Date___________________

Group Session Plan from FUSN (developed by Linda Morrison)

Chalice/Candle Lighting

Opening Words:

Summer Meditation
Now blows the wind with soft, relaxing warmth.
The sun beats down
The schools are out.
Children swarm in the playgrounds and the streets, and eager city folk, vacation bound, crowd the broad highways
The lakes and shores lose their solitude
And all the world seems turned to carnival
What of ourselves? There could be, now, deep peace, a time for soul-searching
We might turn to examine our own lives, to sort and probe our tendencies of thought.
To sort the true from the false in the things of doubt,
The beautiful from ugliness unmarked.
The sun beats down, it is a time for pause.
Even the trees seem resting for a time as if to meditate and gather strength for the more strenuous times that lie ahead.
And shall not we? Here’s the unfinished clay, half-moulded, that still waits on us
To think what we have been, and as we are
Still yet to become. - Robert T. Weston, from Singing the Living Tradition #547

Check-in/Sharing

Topic/Activity:
Beauty – whether in nature, crafted by human hands, or simply identified by human senses – awakes a range of feelings in us - gratitude, peace, inspiration. Other feelings can arise as well: anxiety, regret, or sorrow that some other person is not with us. What complex of feelings, meditations, or wisdom do different kinds of beauty evoke in you? Are there forms of beauty you can rely on for solace? Are there themes you associate with beauty?

Select the topic and location for the next meeting

Check-out / Likes and Wishes

Closing Words:

Seek not afar for beauty, lo, it glows
In dew wet grasses all about your feet,
In birds, in sunshine, childish faces sweet,
In stars and mountain summits topped with snow

Go not abroad for happiness, behold
It is a flower blooming at your door.
Bring love and laughter home, and ever more
Joy shall be yours as changing years unfold

In wonder working or some bush aflame,
We look for Truth and fancy it concealed,
But in earth’s common thing it stands revealed,
While grass and flowers and stars spell out the name.
- Minot Judson Savage, 1841-1918
- Singing the Living Tradition #77