大象传媒

Here comes the sun, as the Beatles once sang so memorably! And these days, that sunshine seems such a rarity - forecast as it now is, for most of Britain, for this prolonged and settled period - that it鈥檚 surely worth singing about, or at least, worth stopping to savour, if we can.聽

Now, I don鈥檛 know about you, but I find that if I鈥檝e been hoping, yearning, longing for something like this weather - and let鈥檚 face it, that dreary winter and inclement spring felt never ending - then when a good thing finally arrives, it can be hard to know how to make the most of it. And as for the weather, ephemeral as it is, of course, then so too, perhaps, for life.

For a start, we may have become so used to living with a profound sense of discontent that we instinctively discount the positive. As the priest and contemplative Richard Rohr says, many of us 鈥渉ave to be taught how to look for anything infinite, positive and good鈥�. To see the blue sky, if you like, and not the clouds.

And we鈥檙e also such seasoned consumers that we may need to remind ourselves that the best things in life are usually free, and available to us all. You can鈥檛 buy or bottle the priceless beauty of a British summer鈥檚 day, that鈥檚 for sure. As the author John Eldredge puts it, 鈥淏eauty is pure gift.鈥� And it鈥檚 our task to receive it, as such. 鈥淛ust because you love the landscape,鈥� he writes, 鈥測ou don鈥檛 have to acquire the real estate. Simply to behold the flower is enough.鈥�

To behold, to see or observe as the dictionary says. To bear witness, if you like. It鈥檚 a spiritual practice that helps us not just to receive what鈥檚 good as gift, but to become more present to the beauty of, say, a summer鈥檚 day, and thus, in the process, to become part of that beauty too. Touched by it, warmed by it; not consuming it, but communing with it instead.聽鈥淐onsider the lilies,鈥� Jesus said. It sounds embarrassingly simple - but it鈥檚 one of the hardest things to do in our fast-forward culture....

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