When Skies are Grey

After a several very grey and rainy days here in Washington and a few grey days in my own heart, I had a taste of sunshine. We woke up this morning to the sun sparkling on a fresh blanket of snow. Although it had mostly melted by mid-morning, it was a keen reminder of the glory that is all around if you just have eyes to see it. The sun filled morning came on the heels of having enjoyed an essay written in 1910 entitled "The Glory of Grey." I read it Saturday afternoon while sitting in front of the fire watching the rain fall. Reminding me to look for the majesty in every moment, and that beauty is sometimes especially noticeable against the grey skies of ordinary life. Here's a little snippet from the essay.

"Lastly, there is this value about the colour that men call colourless; that it suggests in some way the mixed and troubled average of existence, especially in its quality of strife and expectation and promise. Grey is a colour that always seems on the eve of changing to some other colour; of brightening into blue, or blanching into white, or breaking into green or gold. So we may be perpetually reminded of the indefinite hope that is in doubt itself, and when there is grey weather on our hills or grey hair on our heads perhaps the may still remind us of morning."
-G.K. Chesterton

A couple shots from my photography class for the elementary school kids at their Afternoon of Art.

Chesterton Quote of the Day

"You will find that rich colours actually look more luminous on a grey day, because they are seen against a dark background and seem to be burning with a lustre of their own. Against a dim sky all flowers look like fireworks."

-G.K. Chesterton: Daily News, September 3, 1910