departure for the field

I was just cleaning off my desk and my old friend Orison stopped by to remind me to tell you something he wanted you to know...

"There are a thousand evidences in us that we were intended for temples of beauty, of sweetness, of loveliness, of beautiful ideas...

"There is nothing which will pay so well as to train the finest and truest, the most beautiful qualities in us in order that we may see beauty everywhere and be able to extract sweetness from everything.

"The cultured ear will find harmony in forest and field, melody in babbling brooks, and untol pleasure in all Nature's song.

"The great majority of us are living in the basement of our beings.

"If we would all cultivate a love of the beautiful and scatter beauty seeds as we go through life, what a paradise this earth would become!"

My friend William Wordsworth was listening and said, "I bet I can say that in much fewer words:

'...with an eye made quiet by the power
Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,
We see into the life of things...'"

I just love it when they hang out with me. But I told them I really have to go grocery shopping now.

Art credit: Departure for the Field by Jules Breton (Wikimedia Commons)