I think a great deal about eudaimonia and how I might create flourishment in my life. There has been much written about the English translation of the Greek word eudaimonia, and common terms include happiness, joy, flourishment, and flow. As Stoics, we all know that arete, the practicing and upholding of virtue or excellence, is critical in achieving eudaimonia. For me, I utilize what Pierre Hadot calls spiritual exercises to improve my application of virtues, but one concept which I am intrigued by, and is far less explored, is the relationship between beauty and gratitude. Have you ever wondered what comes first beauty or gratitude? And how do you know something is beautiful? And when you notice beauty, what is the result for you?
In the last few years, I have been paying attention to when I notice beauty ~ what are the conditions when I see or experience beauty and contemplating how much of it is due to my external environment and how much of it is due to my personal state of mind and awareness. My greatest learnings have taken place during my daily bike commute, where I am fortunate to be able to follow a path along commercial areas (train tracks that include railroad cars filled with Boeing aircraft fuselages, working waterfronts, a ship canal locks system and fish ladder) and urban saltwater parks & recreation areas.
At first, I was just grateful for the ride and saw limited amounts beauty – usually witnessed at daybreak along the Puget Sound. But as time progressed my gratitude for the bike path, the commercial work taking place, the tugboats, the variation in trees, the various types of people using the bike path converted me from merely having gratitude to fully experiencing beauty. I am now consciously attentive to objects and moments of gratitude. I have also found that there is a blurring between objectivity and perception, frequently I am astounded that I see beauty where I know I would have not even have noticed a thing a few years ago. On a recent evening I noticed streetlights reflecting off rain drenched leaves of a maple tree in my front yard and was truly awestruck by the beauty. Mind you, I have lived in my house for 22 years with that same tree in the same front yard and many, many Seattle rainstorms, and had never once recognized the beauty it provided (or the resulting gratitude I experienced.) My daily commute focusing on gratitude and resulting beauty has bled into a practice I am now applying n all aspects of my life.
My current thinking is that beauty certainly drives gratitude, but it tends to show up as an involuntary reaction. Gratitude on the other hand is a choice, a behavior, and habit. Some might say as an assent to a cognition. As I spend more time staying in the current moment and trying to apply gratitude everywhere I am able, the more I realize that I walk in beauty. I still have a long way to go in making this a constant experience. For example, I am still working on being grateful for the garbage laden portions for my daily commute, much less seeing beauty in that refuse, but I am working on it!
How do you perceive the relationship between beauty and gratitude? And does it have impact on eudaimonia for you? With gratitude and respect,
Todd, Derrick, Kathryn