Five beautiful things I saw today.

Posted on by dannygregory

I looked up from my book and glimpsed the setting sun reflected in a window across West 3rd Street. It was enormous, an incredible, unnatural, cherry red. I rushed to the corner of the terrace to look at the actual sun but it was hidden behind a tangle of water towers and satellite dishes. I watched the last slivers disappear in the mirrors of my neighbors’ picture windows.

In the park, a woman in a black pinafore spun lime green hula hoops ’round her hips, her waist, and knees, and then suddenly convulsed and folded them all into a single shape, a globe with all its meridians demarcated by the buzzing hoops.

The fur on Tim’s back is curly as Persian lamb today. The air is still but he is knotted and wavy. His fur is a dusky rainbow: eggplant, auburn, battleship grey, matte black, all threaded with silver highlights.

I went to Jack’s room to put away some towels. On his top bookshelf, the albums of his drawings that we collected when he was just starting to draw, aged 2 to 4. On their spines, they’re labeled “The Art of Jack Tea Gregory, Vols 1-4.”  On the shelf below them, arranged, apparently in the last few weeks, a row of books of art notes Jack’s been making this year.  Each is labeled with a Brother P-Touch that I didn’t even know he had.  Those two rows of books encompass the last twenty years of his life. And of mine.

At least seven blocks away, there’s a railroad apartment. It has windows at the west end near me and at the far eastern side. A slice of sky is visible through that far window and, across that bright patch, the silhouette of a person passes back and forth. A single leaf on the crabapple tree across the street appears larger than that tiny silhouette yet somehow, I am connected, and know something about how that miniature person feels, pacing so many blocks away.

23 thoughts on “Five beautiful things I saw today.”

  9. I was rushing to read and respond to emails before darting out the door to do some errands. Thank you Danny, for inspiring me to stop my Tuesday morning rush to see (really see) and connect what’s around me. Have a blessed day.

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  12. After reading this I am unable to bumble through the day in the same way I might have. Everyday does matter! Thanks, Danny!

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  13. being seeing doing enjoying moving looking seeing yes moment to moment being here now

    always . . . . thanks for sharing

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  14. You are just so interesting Danny…. I go was back to the beginning with loving you and your books!!!!

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  15. The poetry of your expression really elevates the mundane and everyday into moments of beauty and that’s precisely what they are. We are surrounded by all of this beauty and wonder, magic and majesty every single day but we dint always take the time and focus we need to observe it. Thank you for reminding me of that.

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  16. Oh when we take the time to really see beyond what we think is there. Thank you, Danny. Your descriptions are vivid and inspiring. Think I’ll take the time today to really “check things out”

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  18. You, sir, are damn interesting. I find that we have a lot in common, which I don’t find in many people. Thanks, for being interesting and creative.

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  19. We all have these observations…..the trick is to voice them, to feel them, to write them down……the joy is you’ve done that…and best of all …..shared them…Thanks Danny for being YOU!

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  20. What your observations of today did for me was to make me decide to start a different kind of journal. I want to note more my reactions to my clients at the end of my day, not case notes, just notes to myself to help me remember these wonderful people who trust me to talk to. I learn so much from them. I want to remember that. A for my eyes only journal!

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