The luminous beauty in everyday things is a quintessential feature of Spring. Not only is the natural world re-awakening to greater warmth and light, but we too are re-awakening to all that radiant with life, precisely because it has been relatively absent throughout the winter months. The world keeps on being beautiful in ever-changing ways, we just need to cultivate the eyes to see.
“A true appreciation of beauty cannot be fostered by ignoring practical handicrafts. After all, there is no greater opportunity for appreciating beauty than through its use in our daily lives, no greater opportunity for coming into direct contact with the beautiful.” - Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things
At the Wellington Apothecary we know the importance of illuminating the beautiful in everyday things, as an art of noticing that enhances our wellbeing. Beauty is not just a surface aesthetic, when we behold something beautiful - a well-loved handmade mug, a budding house plant, a hand cream that smells like grandma - our lives are filled with a sense of meaningfulness.
“At its best, art is a tool that reminds us of how little we have fathomed and noticed. It reintroduces us to ordinary things and reopens our eyes to a latent beauty... Indeed, it is against the backdrop of our difficulties that beauty becomes not just pleasing but moving - a reminder of our true home, to which we so long to return.“ - Alain de Botton, a therapeutic journey
Re-enchantment is less about filling our lives with beautiful things as it is about re-awakening our senses to the beauty in everyday things. But also, it is about noticing what we have accumulated in our environment and questioning both its utility and beauty. The quintessential Spring Clean can be a chance to discern the form and function of your every things, and choose both to re-enchant your every life.
"The luminous and shocking beauty of the everyday is something I try to remain alert to, if only as an antidote to the chronic cynicism and disenchantment that seems to surround everything, these days. It tells me that, despite how debased or corrupt we are told humanity is and how degraded the world has become, it just keeps on being beautiful. It can’t help it." - Nick Cave