MY daughter is not an interior decorator but she has a touch which turns ordinary-looking things into something beautiful. For a week, I have been facing a wall with two paintings of vases filled with beautiful white roses.
On top of her dining table is a beautiful blue vase with different kinds of paper roses. Different paintings fill her walls yet her home does not appear cluttered. She has kept it spacious.
I am not going to bore you dear readers with descriptions of her private castle. You have your own.
Men like to come home not only to a tension-free house but to a castle filled with beautiful things. Some of them who are artistically inclined contribute to the beauty of their homes, and some, are content with arranging and rearranging things. My late husband, for example, enjoyed buying beautiful items which he displayed in several cabinets. My other daughter rushed to secure her beautiful items when an earthquake occurred in San Diego, California.
One day, when your own castle is complete, take a good long hard look and appreciate what you have achieved.
I was invited to visit a nipa hut up in the hills and I marveled at all the beautiful flowers which surrounded the owner’s house. Even the center of her sala had white bougainvilla flowers. When I commented on her choice of flowers, she said, “I love the Bandera Española best of all.” They are so colorful.
Castles can be made and found everywhere. I even saw a family living in a cemetery surrounded by the most beautiful flowers. The contrast reveals that those living there have decided to mask their morbid setting with things of beauty.
Sometimes, we may just be too busy to pay attention to our surroundings. Look around and you may be pleasantly surprised.
At one time, a priest stopped in front of the Shrine of our Mother of Perpetual Help. He sighed and said, “How beautiful our Mother Mary looks. Look at Mother Mary and notice the beauty that shines forth.”
We may never fully realize how hard our neighbors and friends worked to build their castles but we can appreciate how they must have enjoyed the different trappings of beauty that went into their homes.
We all hanker for the good, the beautiful and the heavenly, which we can achieve while still on earth.
Go into the forests of Cebu and listen to the trickling of the stream, the rustling of the leaves and the gushing flow of the waterfalls. Smell the aroma of fresh pine trees. Even the calls of the birds are sounds of beauty.
It doesn’t take much imagination to dream of Venice, the Eiffel Tower and the Taj Mahal to know that these large edifices were built to show the beauty of their architecture. Dream of such places and see what man made ages ago.
I wonder how God must have felt when he first looked at the Garden of Eden. Then God took another look at the world and said, “This is good!”