Beauty

My most recent therapist is really into this psychologist who is the father of the "positive psychology" field. In a nutshell this guy, Martin Seligman believes that psychologists' treatments of people's psyches' has focused on the negative and completely omitted the positive. He believes the psychology field focuses on disease while ignoring mental health. (This is also a flaw with the medical field). It has been the status quot if you go to a therapist/psychiatrist hoping to make improvements in your mental state, they will diagnose you with a problem, for example depression, and prescribe a treatment. This guy Seligman has an opposite approach. He seeks to find the patient's strengths and work with them, rather than focusing on a person's deficits to achieve optimal mental health. So on my therapist's advice I went to his website (http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/default.aspx) and took his "Survey of Character Strengths". There are 24 strengths. My top five, in order, are:

1 Curiosity and interest in the world
2 Appreciation of beauty and excellence
3 Honesty, authenticity and genuineness
4 Love of learning
5 Capacity to love and be loved

The questionnaire was spot fucking on. Even my skeptical husband was impressed with how accurate it was. It doesn't matter where I live or if I'm walking, running, biking or driving. I get tangled in beauty everywhere. I have to stop what I'm doing and take it in. A lot of times I'm alone, so I take a picture. Sometimes I show people the pictures, but often I don't. I think I'm just trying to capture the moment. That is after all why cameras were invented. It can be a puppy, or just the way the color and shape of a leave contrasts with the sky behind it. Like most people, I'm a sucker for sunsets and sunrises. And I'll be damned, but it seems like every rising and setting is unique. As our friend Mac said tonight as we sat around the fire, "I could look at this fire all night and never see the same thing twice".

I saw plenty of beauty in the cities I've lived in, but I am just filthy with it here in the countryside. Every day, many times per day I just can't believe what is all around me. I'm taking pictures like a fiend. I wonder where I've been my whole life, and why I haven't been here. But I know, that if I had traveled any other path to getting here I wouldn't be able to appreciate what is all around me the way I do.


It's hard not to share wonderful experiences. To the extent that I can, I do share. But I find myself needing to spread my web wider. I want to shove this lovleyness into people's faces. This is it! This is all there is! Land! Trees! Animals! Sunsets! Endless rolling hills!


I have a plan. I'm going to combine my photos with paint and deliver my beauty to the world. The specifics are a secret for now, but as soon as things settle in around here, I will show you. For now, it's all mine.