Life is Beautiful

"Life is Beautiful" is one of the most famous of Italian movies, and Ijust finished watching it, I had thought I would go for another film tonight, but I found the movie to be much as my days are here, simply enough.  Enough is a word that some of my Italian friends had not heard of before and so it was an interesting philosophical discussion over the topic of "enough."  Which fits so well with the whole concept of the movie, and even the philosophy of a beautiful life.  In the film we have a family who will go through the various aspects of love, from romance, to parents, to extended family and friends all engaged in the actions of caring for one another.  But it is also a story of pre-war and holocaust horrors, all played out within a family trying to survive the best they can.

Here in Italy I try to balance my days with food, friends, walks, writing, mass and my little mis-adventures of Italian bureacracy along the way, just to add excitment.  The days are very full, simply enough of living the fullness of life.  The highs of hanging with friends and being about being awed and in wonderment of God's creation are balanced by the lows paperwork and details of obtaining a permissio di sojourno (permission to stay).   When I think of any frustrations, it is so small compared to the Awe and wonder I feel at simply being here. 

Each day I like to take a walk, and whereas we had snow last week, this week has been nothing but sunshine so far.  There is something magical about seeing how the light plays differently on the village at different times of day, and in the frost of morning, or the chill of evening, the beauty is amazing.  But behind the beauty of the photos is the COLD of the wind.  Every time we take a walk we see not only the wonder of nature, but the trash of humans.  For all that is beautiful, there is an awareness that we have an amazing amount of control as to what we see, is it the nature or the trash...do we sense more the radiance of the sun, or the chill of the wind?

Today on our walk, Maria not only had me sample some edible plants, but stopped to pick a full bag of herbs for her friend for salad....Now these herbs grow in Seattle, and we pick them as weeds, but let me tell you chicoria (chickory) is a wonderful salad green and it was a wonder to watch her cut the greens so more can grow from the roots, and gather them all carefully for a special dinner her friend was preparing.  Her friend is older and unable to collect these greens herself, and the way Maria cared for friend and nature was a gift to behold.  It filled my heart, it left me with a deep sense of satisfaction, life is beautiful, and it is enough.

It has been a good pattern for me in the last few months to figure out what was "enough" for me, and when to call it a night, or take a rest.  It is wonderful to have the opportunity to be away from the business of work, and take time to let life fill itself.  To realize that without my doing anything laborious, my days can be full and my life can be full.  O.k. so I did do some cleaning and am writing now, but realizing that life with be beautifully satisfied without my having to work so hard at it is a lesson in "enough."

Where have you experienced a sense of "Enough" as grace?
How do you see your life as beautiful?
Is there beauty in the struggle of life for you as well as in the joy?
Where does beauty and enough come together in your life?
How do you find beauty in simply having "our daily bread" to give thanks for?