Beauty right around the corner

Those moments poets write about so frequently are true: sometimes you're just going about your everyday life and you make a turn, figuratively or in reality, and you run right into beauty: unexpected, breathtaking and, well...just beautiful.

That's what happened to me last Sunday as I came through the community room doors, casually looked around (why, I do not know) and saw these: 100 handmade (hand turned) wood vases covering the top of one of our large bureaus. They took my breath away.

Here's the background story: Our Sister Audrey, who is a wood turner and belongs to a wonderful club of wood turners, enlisted her friends to provide 100 small vases for the August meeting of the Benedictine women in the US who are "under age 55." They meet every couple of years for camaraderie, friendship, encouragement and support. Their meeting this year is in August in the middle of the Midwest plains, in Yankton, SD (Sacred Heart Monastery). Each of them will receive one of these--from their Benedictine sisters and friends--1,000 miles east on the Great Lake, Erie.

Click to enlarge