Beauty is not to be captured or controlled for there is something intrinsically elusive in its nature.*
(John O’Donohue)

Happy are those who find wisdom, and those who get understanding, for her income is better than silver, and her revenue better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her.**
(Older Testament Proverb)

When we come upon beauty life makes both more sense and is more mysterious – a starry night, an elegant idea, two people connecting in a transcendent way, a movement of life. John O’Donohue continues:

Beauty cannot be forced. It alone decides when it will come and sometimes in the last thing we expect and the very last thing to arrive. Creative artists know this well. Great skill and inspiration set the context or scene where beauty might emerge. But it is not the mind of the artist alone that can determine whether beauty will arrive or not.*

What an exciting thought. Not only are we receivers of beauty but, somehow, we are able to produce beauty.

Perhaps if we seek knowledge and desire wisdom then beauty will be more likely to arrive:

There is no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.^

Wisdom is a particular way of expressing what we “know,” the culmination of humility, gratitude, faithfulness, integrity, wholeness, perseverance, courage and generosity

*From John O’Donohue’s Divine Beauty.
**Proverbs 3:13-14.
*Arnold Bennett, quoted in Jay Cross’ Informal Learning.