The colors of the cosmos

Thin Places just appear sometimes. All you have to do is be ready to see them. We notice because it’s a change, maybe a violation, more or less beautifully, of the good order of our neighborhood. That’s one energy of a thin place. It’s a surprise. A touch of the unexpected in time or space. We need delightful disorder.

Public Art is one formal way that happens. There’s sculpture, statues in parks. Sometimes very big amazing pieces like you see at the nearby Storm King Art Center.

Closer to home, you can find street art and graffiti.

Even more special is when it’s random, beautiful and unexpected. Last summer, neighbors must have planted some cosmos seeds around one of the street utility poles. Cosmos are annuals, very easy to grow from new seed or even last year’s fallen seed. About now or soon, they bloom and stay for several weeks. They carry a sense of harmony, “late summer bloomers”— like so many of us want to be!

I look at the phone pole every day. I’ve gotten a taste for beautiful disorder.

You? Where do you find it?

Daniel Mack